4

"Do you want to talk Margaret?" Potter asked.

"No, thanks for asking though, maybe later. I think I'm going back to my tent for a rest now." Margaret said this as she walked out of the office and in to Hawkeye who was waiting for her outside the door. They walked back to her tent together.

"Can we talk about this on the way to the 8063rd tomorrow? I think I still need some getting used to the idea, and you need your rest." As he said this they redirected themselves toward the Swamp.

"Don't start doctoring me now Hawk," Margaret said with a smile, "but you're right, I think you need some time to think. I'll see you tomorrow.

"Hey, I am a doctor, I can't help it," he said, then kissed her on the cheek and went into the Swamp, flopping on to his cot.

"What's the problem Hawk?" asked B.J., who had lived with Hawkeye long enough to know when something was bothering him.

"Nothing, I'm Fine!" said Hawkeye, a bit more emphatically than he'd meant to.

"Come on Hawk, what is it?"

"Margaret thinks she's pregnant," replied Hawkeye tersely.

"Do I gather correctly that you're the other part to this?"

"Yeah. Beej, I don't know what to do. I love Margaret, and I want to be in the kid's life, I think Margaret wants that too. I don't know though, and I don't want her to hate me forever for ending her army career."

"Come on Hawk, you aren't even sure you'll have anything to worry about yet. You two are going to have to talk about it, but I'm going to butt in and give you some advice because I'd beat myself up if I didn't. If she is pregnant you have to stay in that kid's life. Don't leave just because you didn't plan this or if you and Margaret can't get along. If you have an opportunity to be in your child's life, you have to take it," he stopped, thinking about his own wife and little girl.

"I know Beej. I know. Thank you."

"When do you find out for sure?"

"Tomorrow, Margaret and I are going to the 8063rd to demonstrate the arterial transplant. If all goes well we can get there by nine, finish the demo by one, and get the test results by four. Hopefully we'll be back here by eight."

"I'll be waiting. Someway or another this will work out Hawk."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get some sleep now. Thanks Beej."

Hawkeye laid down on his cot and many thoughts started swirling around his head. 'Will I be a good father?' 'Will Margaret resent me?' 'Am I going to end up like Beej with a wife and kid waiting for me to come home from this awful place?' 'What'll Dad think?' 'What will happen if it turns out she's not pregnant?' He thought over all the for a bit but, (as had become his habit out of necessity) he grabbed sleep whenever he could get it and blocked out all thoughts. He was asleep within a half hour.

Margaret in her tent, didn't fare as well. She was mulling over thoughts about the life that could be inside her, and all the changes it could bring for almost three hours. She'd had suspected for a while now, so she'd had time to ponder some of these issues, but now that she'd told Hawkeye, she had his thoughts to wonder about as well.

They both woke bright and early. Hawkeye dressed, went to the Mess Tent for two thermoses of hot coffee, and went to Margaret's tent. She walked out, and he handed her a thermos wordlessly as they went to their Jeep. Hawkeye was steering them out of the compound before either said a word.

"You know, I don't hate you," said Margaret.

"Huh?" asked Hawkeye, a little shocked at the statement.

"I was just thinking about it last night and I thought you might think I hold it against you that this could get me out of the army. I know you must remember how I acted last time. I just want you to know that I'm okay with this. I've accepted it, and I'm not blaming anybody if it means the end of my army career."

"That makes me fell better Margaret. I don't want to lose you as a friend, I told you before that I'd like something more to come of our friendship, obviously I didn't mean anything like this, especially this fast, but how does this change things? I need to know if we're talking friendship, marriage, wait and see, or what? I've never contemplated fatherhood before, I don't know what I'm supposed to do." They both got quiet. Several miles later Margaret replied, "You don't have to marry me Hawkeye. Don't think it's some kind of obligation. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. If you want to talk about it and see what happens, I'm all for that. I love you, but I think we should see if this works first.

"That's just what I was hoping you'd say," he reached over and squeezed her hand.

"There's the 8063rd up ahead," exclaimed Margaret, sighting the compound. They drove in, and were met by the head surgeon. Eh led them to the Mess Tent where the medical staff was waiting for them. Together they explained the procedure (with the help of diagrams) and answered questions. Both of them were very eager to hurry and finish, and when they did they went straight to the CO.

"We were wondering if we could borrow your lab Colonel, uh" The other man cut Hawkeye off.

"Your CO already called me. The lab is that way, reserved for your use."

"Thank you," Margaret said warmly and shook his hand. She and Hawkeye walked over to the lab.

****It's now roughly and hour later. Since I don't know anything about medicine, let alone medicine in the 1950s, we're assuming that they performed a test of some kind and are now looking through a microscope at the results.****

Hawkeye stood over the microscope in silence. "Margaret," he moved over to let her see, because he wasn't sure how to tell her, and wasn't really sure he wasn't just seeing things.

Margaret looked in. Her breath caught in her throat. "I'm pregnant." Hawkeye hugged her to him.

"Hey, it'll be okay, at least we'll know for sure now. No more, 'Well, if it's true...' Now we can figure out what to do. First, we have to go back and tell Potter. You okay?"

"Yes, Hawk. I'm fine. It's just a shock to know, you know?" she was speaking more into his shoulder than actually looking at him.

"Yeah, I know," he held her tighter and then let go. "We should be getting back to camp." They let the CO know, and then they headed out. On the way to the 4077th Margaret began to voice some of her concerns.

"How're we going to tell everyone? Are we going to tell anyone? How long do I have left here? Is it awful to this baby if we don't get married immediately?" She'd never really contemplated having a baby while still in the army, and single. Hawkeye let her talk, and then he began answering.