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*Back at Margaret's House*


"I'm exhausted. And thirsty," Margaret said as they let themselves in.

"Ditto," agreed Hawkeye.

"Want something to drink?" she offered.

"Depends. Is it organic prune juice?"

"Ew! That's disgusting!"

"Then, I'll take something to drink. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something that disgusting."

"For your information, that sounds worse than any of Igor's creations, so why would ANYONE think of such a thing? Oh, and I hope you like iced tea."

"I love iced tea. There are only two thing I like better: medicine and you." Whoops. Where'd that come from?

"Is that so?" she asked, hoping not to hear him say yes.

"Well, yeah."

"I think we need to talk. As in now."

"Why? Was it something I said?"

"You could say that."

"Oh?"

"C'mon. We'll go sit on the back porch."

"Or, if this house belonged to a rich person, they'd say 'Let's go sit on the back Porsche.'" Hawkeye joked.

"Cute."

"Thank you."
They walked out onto the porch and Margaret told Hawkeye to sit. He sat down on the whicker love seat and motioned for her to sit next to him. She ignored him completely.

"I have the feeling this isn't going to be a fun talk, is it?" he asked.

"I'm sorry to say, but no."

"Oh."

"This isn't going to work. Not now."

"What's not going to work."

"Us. At least not now."

"But, Margaret, we've lost touch, we've lost in love, lost our minds when things got tough, but beatin' time is a losin' fight, and up until now, I always though we've been doin' all right. I mean, it's a beautiful day; not a cloud in sight, and I've got a good ole friend with me here tonight, I always thought that things could be 'all right' for us together. Why not?"

"Just not now, I'm not ready. We can still be friends though."

"FRIENDS?!? Did you hear that? She says we can be 'friends!' Ha!"

"Hawkeye?"

"Lady, I didn't come here just to hear you say we could 'be friends!' And I'll tell you this, Margaret Houlihan, you and your 'be friends' s**t can just go to h**l." With that, Hawkeye stormed off. She was going to go after him, but realized he'd need time to be alone and then, he'd come to his senses. Hopefully. After about two hours, she was getting scared that she'd hurt him so badly with her "just be friends" thing he wasn't coming back, so she decided to go and look for him. She ran back into the house, grabbed her keys and sprinted to the garage. She yanked the door to her truck open and drove to the park as fast as the speed limit would allow. After doing a quick search of the park, she found no trace that he'd been there.Margaret had one more idea. The beach. It was a possibility.About ten minutes later, she noticed someone walking in that direction. It was Hawkeye. She slowed down. "Yo! Pierce!" she called. He kept on walking. "Need a ride, stranger?" He kept ignoring her. "Hawkeye?" Still no answer. "Ben? C'mon. I can take you to where ever it is you're headed. Hello? Is anyone in there?" He continued to walk. That was it, she decided. She pulled over and got out and ran to catch up to him. "I'm not gonna leave you alone until you say something."

"Go away."

"Why?"

"You said you'd leave me alone if I said something."

"You know what I meant."

"Did I? You've been so confusing lately!"

"Me?!?"

"Yes."

"Okay, before we get really mad at each other, I'm sorry."

"Too late."

"WHAT?!?"

"Kidding! Don't kill me!"

"No comment. Well, you want a ride back to my place."

"Okay. Boy, am I glad that's settled."

"Okay," she said once they had gotten settled and were headed back to her place, "That 'let's be friends' stuff was really dumb. I'm sorry. We'll never be able to just be friends."

"I know this. That's what I was trying to say."

"I know."

"Then why? But- Oh, never mind!" he said. She laughed. They'd reached their final destination. "I hate to say it, but you can drive okay--for a blonde," Hawkeye commented. "Oh, gee, I always wanted to hear that," she joked. He grinned. They walked back to the porch and Hawkeye noticed something that was fluffy laying on the porch steps. Margaret saw it at the same time and started running. When she got to the steps, she dropped down onto her knees and said, "I never thought I'd see you again, Houndini!!" to a rather large Border Collie. "Houdini?" asked Hawkeye. "There's a reason for the name, believe me!" she laughed. "Tell me when we get inside," he said. They went inside and the first thing Houdini did was jump all over Margaret. "Down. Sit. Stay. Good boy." She turned to Hawkeye, "See what I put up with all the time? Well, at least when Houdini doesn't disappear."
They walked into the living room and sat down on the overstuffed sectional that took up almost half of the room.

"Well? Are you gonna tell me more about Houdini??"

"Yup. He got his name after I tried to lock him in the bedroom once and still managed to get out...the same thing happened when I tried to put him outside one day...he got back in even though the door was closed. That's why Houdini hasn't been around...he got out, but he's back." When Houdini heard his name, he ran into the living room and took a leap onto Margaret's lap. Hawkeye started to laugh when Houdini began to lick Margaret. She tried to tell him to get off, but this was one time Houdini wouldn't listen. "I think your dog doesn't realize it's own size!" Hawkeye laughed. "Shut up! Houdini, DOWN!" This time, Houdini obeyed.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed Margaret.

"What?"

"I just remembered that there's a dog show sorta thing tomorrow and Houdini isn't ready for it by any stretch of the imagination."

"So, don't go."

"What? You're kidding."

"No."

"I'll just stay up all night and get him ready, that's all. No big deal."

"I'll help."

"Thanks. I hope that this isn't a waste of time though."

"Why would it be?"

"There's gonna be nasty competition that lives and breathes winning in this sort of thing. Houdini may look really dumb compared to all of those other dogs."

"Oh, c'mon, we can win!"

"You sound more interested than me!"


"I know."

"Well, let's get started, we have a lot of work to do, right, Houdini?" Houdini barked in reply. "See? Even he knows," commented Margaret. The first thing they did was give Houdini a bath. Ha! More like Houdini gave them a bath! They set him in the old bath tub down in the basemeant, got him wet, and the next thing that happened was Houdini shook the water off. Margaret was dripping wet and Hawkeye began cackling. She only meant to splash him a little, but he ended up being almost as wet as Margaret. "Margaret!" he said pretending to be mad. She ignored him and continued trying to bathe Houdini with flea shampoo. She finally finished and Houdini jumped out of the bath tub and shook. After that, Hawkeye held him while Margaret dried Houdini off. Needless to say, both Hawkeye and Margaret ended up smelling like wet dog. "Could you brush him while I go take a shower? Then, I'll feed him and make sure he knows the commands he's supposed to know," asked Margaret. "Yeah, but didn't Houdini just give us a shower? Not like you helped much, though," replied Hawkeye.

"Chill out."

*Noon the Next Day*


After hoping that Houdini did okay, they found out that he hadn't. He'd done great!! Houdini won second place in the competition! He'd lost to a prissy German Shepard, who looked incredibly..strange...with it's painted toenails and bows in its short black and brown fur.

*Margaret's House a Few Days Later*


"Margaret, I hate to have to say this, but I have to leave. Ya know, dad's at home still and waiting for me."

"I understand."

"Will you be okay here?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Never mind..I was just curious."

"Before you leave, I have to give you something." Margaret ran upstairs and retrieved the ribbon Houdini had won the other day. She ran back downstairs. "Here. Take this home with you.You deserve it, with out you, Houdini wouldn't of won it." She took Hawkeye's hand and wrapped his fingers around the ribbon. "Thanks," he replied and then left. "Well, Houdini, it's just you and me again. The question is, will it always be this way? If it will be, is the world ready for us?" she asked her faithful dog. He licked her hand, sadly. Does he feel the same as I do about Hawkeye leaving? wondered Margaret. If only Houdini could talk, thought Margaret. "C'mon, Houdini.I'll throw you the frisbee if you don't run off with it--again."

*A Medical Convention in Pennsylvania a Year Later*


Not only was it a convention, but an opportunity to go back to med school. Actually, you showed up at the convention and Wham! you're in the class no matter what. Thud. All of the text books and tablets Margaret was carrying plus someone else's hit the ground. She turned to see who it was. She was so surprised when she saw him. "Hawk!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around him. "Hi, Margaret!"

"Long time..."

"...no see."

"Yeah. How've ya been?"

"Great! Yourself?"

"Pretty good."

"That's great. How's Houdini?"

"Why don't you come to my place and see him for yourself?"

"You live on the other side of the country!"

"Nope. I moved here. I wanted to four seasons instead of sun, sun, and more sun. Gets boring after a while."

"Interesting."
They talked for quite some time, skipping the classes they were supposed to be at. Margaret was about to leave and before she left, Hawkeye said,"Well, I hate to see this evening end, God only knows when I'll see you again. Just send me a letter, or give me a call, that'd even be better. I'll be missin' ya, but I guess I'll be all right."

"Ya know, it doesn't have to end like this."

"What do you mean? We've lost touch, lost in love, we lost our minds when things got tough, why not just go our separate ways and live out our solitary lives?"

"Hawkeye, you don't understand. We can be together..forever..."

"In other words, you're asking me to marry you?"

"Yes. Will you?"

"Yes."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What Happened?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I guess the only thing you can say at this time is they lived happily ever after. Wait, that's one of Megan's stories, isn't it? Well, like I said,
"they lived happily ever after." It's about time those two figured out what destiny had planned for them, huh? At first she just wouldn't let Hawkeye love her....she grew up though. She just needed time to make up her mind. At least she did make up her mind though. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.


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