Margaret could feel her feet propelling her forward as fast as they could. She must have looked strange to the people passing her by. She was all flustered, and excited and nervous. She had every emotion rushing through her body. What she would say to Hawkeye was not known. She began to play out their meeting in her head. Hawkeye would stride up to her, exclaiming her name with a big grin across his face, pick her up and spin her round and give her one of those warm comforting hugs he had given her in Korea. The scene played over in her mind, over and over again. Poplars Street was all up hill from the village. The road wound its way around the curves of coastline. Just as she thought she would end up at the lighthouse as she reached the top of the hill slightly breathless, the road sharply turned right. She stood there for a moment and looked back down upon the sleepy fishing town. It was so beautiful, and with a deep breathe she looked up at the street sign, "Poplars Street". Here we go, Margaret said to herself with incertainty. She turned right and the road was now all down hill. The road was straight with a bend at the bottom and appeared to follow a thin peninsular off the headland. She reached the bottom of the hill and read the numbers as she slowed down her walking pace.

"Number 12...Number 14", all the houses were very sweet looking cottages. She walked around the bend in the road, "number 16..." She realized which number she had reached and looked forward to the address of number 18 Poplars Street. She walked forward, slowly approaching the Pierce residence. Her heart started to beat loudly and it felt as though it would jump out of her chest. She stood in front of number 18 and admired it for a few moments. It was a little more private than the other homes in the street. It was at the very end of the street where it stopped. The house looked to have a lot of land. The house was painted blue with white shutters and a front porch and an attic. A driveway went down the side of the house to a garage and a neat pathway, lined with flowers lead to the wooden stairs to the porch and entrance. She proceeded through the white picket fence with blue trim. It had a few vines interlacing their way between the pickets. She unlatched the gate and slowly closed it behind her, not wanting to disturb the quiet serenity of the street. She almost felt like a child walking through an area, which was out of bounds to her. She walked self consciously as she felt like someone may be watching her. She stepped up the wooden stairs and up onto the porch, which was also wooden. She looked at the porch before knocking. It was very wide, with a seat swing and a few armchairs. It had a white railing, and some of the plants from the garden were reaching their fingers through the wooden panes. Margaret took in a deep breath and knocked on the door three times rather quickly, in a nervous fashion. As she stood there she fixed her jacket over her shirt and fiddled with the ends of her soft blonde hair, which were under the suede hat. She heard large stride steps coming towards the door. Her heart was pounding harder than ever before and she was becoming a little clammy and the butterflies in her stomach were now doing summersaults and cartwheels. The footsteps stopped and the door was unlatched from the inside. It opened before her.

"Well, I don't believe I ordered a beautiful blonde, but you will do very nicely" the older man said with a broad smile across his face. Margaret's heart half stopped when she saw the older man. She was so sure Hawkeye was going to answer the door and greet her. She remained smiling but the disappointment must have shone through her icy blue eyes.

"Ahhh, I was looking for a Benjamin Franklin Pierce or Hawkeye, either one will do" she continued to smile. The older man had the same nose as Hawkeye and mouth but his eyes were brown and his skin a little darker, revealing the Italian background in the family.

"And both Ben and Hawkeye would be delighted to see you I'm sure. No wonder you looked a little disappointed when I answered the door. You were expecting the younger Pierce. I should have known it would be too good to be true to have beautiful blonde like yourself come to visit me." They were still at the door smiling at each other. Margaret remained in a state of shock that Hawkeye hadn't answered the door as he had in her mind. Furthermore, she was standing in front of the man whom Hawkeye talked about so often. There was a sudden discomfort. She could tell by his eyes that he was wondering who she was and what she was doing on his doorstep. "Don't think me rude, but I haven't seen you in the cove before, are you new to town?" His eyes and voice asked her inquisitively.

"Oh I beg your pardon" Margaret said slightly embarrassed, "My name is Margaret Houlihan and you must be Hawkeye's father, Dr Pierce." Margaret extended her hand to shake Daniel's, which of course he kindly accepted

"Hand the lady a cigar and please call me Daniel," he said as he stepped aside and moved his arm in a manor to invite Margaret into his home. He led her through to the living room and asked her to sit down.

"I'm sorry to turn up on your doorstep unannounced like this, its." Daniel cut her off.

"Don't be silly Margaret, I should have known it was you when I saw you. Hawkeye has a picture of you and him laughing together at a party and not to mention the endless descriptions of you in his letters from Korea" Daniel sat on the opposite sofa to Margaret and leaned forward on his knees as he spoke easily to her.

"Oh, well that is very sweet of you to say so" She replied and blushed slightly. She felt very at ease talking with Daniel and although they had just met, they felt like they had known each other for years.

"You know Margaret, I almost feel as though I am talking to one of Hawkeye's childhood friends, I feel as though I know you already" He said to her smiling again as he rubbed his hand through his thick gray hair.

"I must say that I feel the same way" Margaret replied still smiling. Although Hawkeye wasn't there she couldn't help but smile. Here she was sitting in Hawkeye's lounge room, talking with his father, the situation almost seemed surreal.

"Hawkeye is actually out at lunch today. I come home for lunch most days though. Hawk had to take an old friend of his to lunch today as a way of apologizing for the performance he put on last night. He can be quite spectacular when he 's feeling up to it." Daniel spoke sarcastically of his son.

"I take it his performance was not well taken by his audience then?" Margaret asked, trying not to sound overly concerned.

"Well.why don't you join me for lunch here. Hawk left about half an hour ago, you probably just missed him in town. I think we better have a little chat" Daniel said as he got up off the couch and led Margaret to the kitchen.

The house was fairly large considering it was just Hawkeye and his father living there. The lounge room was a nice deep red colored room with a floral border around the ceiling. The ceilings were high and white. A dining room or area was also part of the large room. Rich colored carpets were on the floor over the deeply colored wooden oak floorboards. As they entered the kitchen, Daniel insisted that she sit down and let him look after her. He prepared lunch and spoke to her at the same time.

"Hawkeye's performances have been more regular since he returned from the war. He's not the same Hawkeye I let go of at Portland station a few years ago. He changed over there, which is understandable, but he has become so distant and absent minded of late. He doesn't make wise cracks like he used to. His infectious laugh can't be heard from the beach anymore. We even fight like you wouldn't believe about the most irrelevant things, we never used to fight, maybe once every blue moon if we remembered to." Daniel stopped as he continued to chop up the vegetable for a salad. "Please don't be alarmed Margaret. The last thing he needs is to lose another friend. You know you just might be able to help."

"What makes you think I can help him. I came here with the picture of the man I lived with in Korea. I might be as shocked as you are." She said, she was no longer smiling and Daniel noticed her eyes had become very concerned.

"Margaret, I can't tell you how glad I am that you are here. You have been through the war with Hawk, you may be able to understand his pain more than I do. He keeps telling me that I wont understand and that I will never understand. I think there are several things eating him at the moment, but the major cause is the war."

"What else would worry Hawkeye" Margaret replied flatly.

"Well I honestly think he worries about never settling down. He goes on dates with some of the local girls and complains about their naivety and ignorance. Yet he cannot stand the site of them with another man. I think he worries that he will never settle down and have a family, hence why he is protective of the few women he has up his sleeve for future wives, if you know what I mean."

"Hawkeye never seemed like the settling down type to me" Margaret said, her eyes full of concern.

"That's what I mean by everything coming back to the war, something over there had changed his mind, not that I mind of course, but I just wish he could find happiness and sooner rather than later" Daniel said with a little agitation in his voice. Margaret realized that her visit with Hawkeye might not be as easy as she had planned. He was obviously not coping with the aftermath of the war. Margaret wasn't coping either. She didn't care that Hawkeye may not be himself for the moment; all she wanted was to feel his arms around her and have her head just fall against his chest.

"Well, I'll honestly just be satisfied if he is happy to see me. I wouldn't want him to take one look at me and run or something" Margaret laughed a little nervously to try and lighten the dark turn the conversation had taken.

"Oh don't you worry about that, I have never known Hawk not to welcome a beautiful lady into our home." Daniel laughed at Margarets light hearted joke, but he saw the angst in her face. He put his hand across and placed it on top of hers and looked her in the eye sincerely and honestly, the same way Hawkeye would if Margaret was upset about something. "Don't worry.he'll be delighted to see you, I promise you that, but I can't promise any more."

They sat at the table over lunch both sharing stories about the Hawkeye they both knew only too well. The conversation shifted onto Margaret then, and she was put on the spot.

"So" Daniel started with some food on the end of his fork. Margaret prayed that he wouldn't sniff the food which he didn't, he just ate it, "we have spoken a lot about Hawk, but not much about you. Tell me, where do you live and what do you do with yourself?"

Margaret proceeded to answer as well as she could without letting her eyes give away too much. Margaret feared that Daniel could read her eyes as well as Hawkeye could and tried hard to give little away.

"Well I'm working in an stateside army hospital in Atlanta Georgia. I'm head nurse there just as I was at the 4077th." She sounded proud and confident.

"And a damned good one I hear!" Daniel said with his smile spreading across from one ear to the other. "So are you happy there?"

God she hated that question with a passion. How could she answer without letting her emotion show somehow? She tried to control all that was inside her but couldn't. She looked at Daniel and simply replied "Not particularly."

Daniel was a little taken a back by her direct and honest answer. "Oh" was all he could say at first and then "Is that why you are having some time off." He said reaching across to the salad bowl and taking another helping, not making eye contact.

"Yeah, I just got a months leave, so I thought I would come and visit," she left it at that.

"Well its nice of you to think of Hawk and to come and see him. Many of his friends haven't the time for him now that he is not the Hawkeye they knew and loved. Anyway." Daniel drifted off as the conversation returned to Hawkeye's state. He thought he should stop warning Margaret about his own son. Margaret was a little taken a back by his last comment. Hawkeye always used to talk about his great childhood friends from the cove, "Haven't they stuck by him?" Margaret thought silently in her head. Daniel noticed Margaret's expression as she stared at the table in front of her, he broke the silence.

"My nurse is off this afternoon, but if you like you can come with me and you can help me out where needed. It will give you something to do and I'm not sure when Hawk will be back, he said he would be back for dinner though"

"Well that sounds good to me, it would be a pleasure to work with someone I have heard so much about. Hawk admires you so much, maybe more than you realize" Margaret said gently to the other man. He looked at her and smiled, her remark gave him a little comfort.

"It would be an honor to serve with you too Margaret." Daniel smiled across the table at her.

Margaret decided to go with Daniel rather than hang at home and wait for Hawkeye. She felt a little funny about waiting there for Hawkeye in his home. Despite Daniel making her feel quite at home, she wouldn't feel comfortable waiting in the house.

"It shouldn't be too busy this afternoon, it will just be nice to have some company and someone to answer the blasted phone for me", Margaret smiled up at him and got up from the table, taking the plates with her. "Uh uh uh, let me do that" Daniel reprimanded her, and took the plates to the kitchen. "Well.we best be off. You know, when I think about, the practice is quite busy considering the size of this place. All the kids are pretty mischievous though, so we get a lot of broken bones and that kind of thing" He said laughing at the thought of his patients.

Daniel gathered up his jacket and brief case as they walked out the back door. The backyard was rather extensive. It had an outdoor area, which was paved with bricks and had an outdoor barbeque. A large wooden table, able to seat about eight people was next to the barbeque. Margaret thought the Pierces must have done a lot of entertaining in the summer.

"Your very lucky to have such a fantastic entertainment area. Do you use it much over the summer?" Margaret inquired.

Daniel stopped on his way to the garage and looked at the area. "Well, my wife, Alyssa, loved to entertain, and Hawk and I would use it a fair bit in the summer but he was away for so many summers. I didn't hold any parties while he was over in Korea though, it didn't seem right to have a lot of fun when he was going through hell, if you know what I mean. I didn't want him to feel like he was missing out on too much by not being here." Daniel turned around and smiled at Margaret who was looking at the yard taking it all in. She simply could not believe she was in Hawkeye's home, the place he had told her so much about in Korea. She just stood there taking it in. Daniel once again broke the silence.

"It's great in summer," he began in a lighter tone, "the beach is just behind the trees there." He pointed his arm in the direction of a dirt path through the trees. "There's a little stream which runs through the trees and beyond that lies the beach. You'll have to some back in July for another visit!" Daniel was so lovely and friendly. Not once did he imply that he didn't want her there. He seemed to be so content with her company, even if she did ask a lot of questions. Margaret figured his openness and friendly nature must come from years of loneliness. Sure he had Hawkeye there, but he was gone for three years and before that he was doing his five years residency in Boston.

"Well little lady, its time we hit the road!" Daniel said in a southern accent and took her by the arm and led her to the car in the garage. He opened the garage door and opened the passenger door for Margaret like a true gentleman. They backed out the long straight driveway, which ran down the side of the house. "I very rarely walk to work these days, the distance seems further these days." Daniel remarked as they drove towards the village.

As they drove Margaret couldn't help but notice how talkative Daniel was. He spoke to her about Hawkeye again. He was so obviously concerned about his son, otherwise he wouldn't bring it up in conversation as often as he did. Margaret began to conjure up a picture of the Hawkeye that she was going to see, not the Hawkeye she thought she would see. She didn't know whether or not it would bother her to see him distraught. She thought about Daniel's comments about his friends not sticking by him and decided that she would be there for him should he need her. If he didn't need her, she would say her hellos and goodbyes and head back to Georgia.

They pulled up outside the practice and Daniel opened the gate for her. The walked up the pathway to the front porch and Daniel unlocked the door. The waiting room was very quaint and cute, which gave the surgery a homely feel. Daniel sure did have a way of making people feel at home and at ease. He found her a uniform to put on. No patients arrived for a while, so they spent the afternoon chatting over coffee and laughing. Margaret was already having a wonderful time, she just hoped it continued when she saw Hawkeye again.