4

Somewhere in Washington, DC...

Julia smiled to herself. She'd just gotten word from Kate that the plan to get rid of Margaret and Ana had been accomplished. You see, not long after Margaret and Tori had left, Hawkeye found his keys had fallen through a hole in his pocket and were on the floor by his feet. After they had gone inside, Kate had excused herself and gone into the kitchen to make phone call. Julia had been ecstatic to hear this news. The only thing was, Tori might not be around anymore, either. Well, no matter, she'd convince that new girl - what was her name? - oh, yeah, Carlene, to join her.

Hours later at Hawkeye and Margaret's apartment

Ring, ring

At the sound of the phone ringing, Hawkeye leaped out of his seat to answer it. A few minutes later, after he hung up, he walked into the room with a solemn look on his face.

"Tori and Margaret were in an accident...it seems that Tori's not doing too bad, but Margaret isn't doing to well at all," Hawkeye said in almost a whisper.

The group looked shocked. Kate managed to look shocked because she was sure that Margaret had been killed. How could this be? Everything was planned perfectly! Tori probably messed it up, thought Kate.

"I'm going to go to the hospital and find out more about what's going on...why don't you guys go home?" Hawkeye suggested as he headed for the door.

At the hospital

Three days had gone by. Hawkeye had sat by her bed for almost the whole time. Why her? Why did everything always happen to her? he wondered. Still no improvements...nothing. It was driving him insane. He just wanted her to be okay and be able to come home where she belonged. Now, though, that seemed next to impossible. He put his hands over his face and began to cry. After a while, he stopped crying and just sat there holding her hand and praying that she would wake up and be fine. About an hour later, Daniel showed up and told Hawkeye that Tori was up and not doing bad at all.

"Why don't we go home for a while?" suggested Daniel.

"I don't want to."

"Hawkeye, you have a son and a cat to take care of...c'mon, we'll go get Mickey and get something to eat...you can come back tomorrow."

"I don't wanna."

"It's only a few hours."

"Dad, what's 'only a few hours' to you is a long time, really. Anything can happen in that amount of time."

Daniel knew what Hawkeye was going at, without his having to say it.

"Hawk, nothing is going to happen. Have I ever lied to you?"

"Yes. In a similar situation. Remember?"

Once again, Daniel knew what his son was saying.

"Dad, I'm staying here."

"Son, don't be an idiot! Go home!"

Hawkeye decided to obey him since he rarely yelled.

"Okay, but if anything happens, I'll never forgive you."

"She's strong, son. She'll be fine."

Hawkeye and Margaret's Apartment

"Daddy!" Mickey cried as he ran to Hawkeye.

"Hey, Mickey," Hawkeye said, trying to sound cheery. Then, he looked at the clock.

"Mickster, it's bed time for you," he declared.

"Aw...okay," Mickey said and then yawned. Mickey went into his room and before Hawkeye could come and tuck him in, he was asleep. Hawkeye went into his room and laid on the bed. He laid there for ten minutes, but he couldn't face another night in that lonely bed, so he laid down on the couch instead. Then, he did something unusual. Well, unusual for him, at least. He prayed that Margaret would be fine.
~~~~~

"Dr. Pierce, we tried."

"Why didn't you call me in?!"

"We knew she was your patient, but we didn't think that it was that big a deal. You've let us do it before."

"This time it was different."

"We figured by the time you got here..."

"Chevy Chase Towers is only minutes away! What do you mean by that?!"

"Well...um..."

"She couldn't have gotten that bad that fast!"

"What does it matter now? It's too late for anything."
~~~

Hawkeye sat bolt upright. The dream had seemed too real! He wanted to go to the hospital and check right then, but he knew that he should wait for the morning.

August 15, 1958

Margaret had made a miraculous recovery and was back at work already. At eight o'clock that night, she walked into the apartment from work. Hawkeye paused long enough to give her a kiss and then he left for work. Margaret made herself a sandwich and sat down on the couch. The apartment was so quiet. Mickey was in bed and Hawkeye was gone. It had been this way for a while. She vowed that when Hawkeye came home the next morning she'd have a talk with him. For now, though, she'd just sit there and watch "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" for a while before going to bed. At quarter of nine, she fell asleep on the couch.

The next morning, she woke up when she heard the door slam shut.

"Good morning!" Hawkeye said in a voice a little above a whisper.

"Gee, I thought you'd be dead on your feet when you got home," Margaret commented.

"Nah, we had a slow night."

"That's good," she yawned.

"Jeeze, what time were you up 'til? Midnight?" he asked when he noticed how tired she was.

"Try not even nine, buddy," she replied.

"I take it you had a busy day at work, then?"

"Beyond description."

"Good, I don't wanna hear about it anyway," he teased.

"I'm going to go take a shower. I want to talk to ya after, so don't go anywhere."

Thirty minutes later...

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" he asked.

"Us."

"I hate when you say that."

"I know."

"Okay, well, what do ya need to say?"

"Can we go into the bedroom? I don't want Mickey around," she said.

"Sure."

Hawkeye laid on his back on the bed and Margaret paced across the room, trying to work up the nerve to say what she had to.

"Hawkeye," she began.

"Yes?" he asked in a high pitched voice.

"Please, don't interrupt," she said.

"Okay

She took a deep breath.

"We used to talk forever on a dime; now we live together and never find the time. We used to walk as lovers on the sand, now we're workin' full time on our lifetime plan. We never stop to see the moon at night, we're just too busy leadin' complicated lives. I remember love on a rooftop; couldn't make the love stop. We were givin' all that we got. I remember holding you so tight; when kissin' lasted all night; love on a rooftop. Look at us now, we're all grown up. Got it all together; got it all sewn up. But is this all it all was leadin' too? Do we just run out of dreams when all our dreams come true? Whatever happened to those endless nights when we were happy living young and foolish lives?"

He didn't know what to say. She was right, though. Things had changed a lot.

"Okay, yeah, things have changed...not for the better, either...we can try to fix it," he said. Noticing the look he was getting from her, he said, "Can't we?"

"You decide."

"What?"

"We have to work together if we want to change what's been going on in our lives."

"How?"

"For one, we could see about changing our schedules for work. Hawkeye, we never take the same day off, nor do we work the same shift. Actually, I should be at work right now." With that, she walked out of the bedroom. A few minutes later, Hawkeye heard the door slam. He sighed.

The hospital

"You're late, Houlihan," Tori Jackson snapped. Margaret ignored her. She remembered that Tori was the reason for the car accident and Ana's death, but she never told anyone. Tori knew she hadn't, but she didn't know why.

"I see you decided to show up," teased Carlene.

"Yeah, I was just yelling at Hawkeye. It seems that nothing ever gets through his thick skull," Margaret said, shaking her head. Carlene smiled. Tori glared at Margaret. So what if I tried to kill her? She could at least try to act civil towards me, thought Tori.

"Enough of this chitchat - get to work!" barked Tori.

"Yes ma-am, right away, ma'am," Margaret muttered.

"I heard that," Tori said.

"Good." With that, Margaret turned around and walked away from them.

"Watch your back, Houlihan," Tori muttered. Carlene then went off to check on patients.

~~~~~

"So, Carlene, what do you think?" Margaret asked.

"What?" Carlene had been lost in space. She was thinking about Tori's offer. It was vague, but it sounded interesting. She said that if Carlene was willing to ditch Margaret, she could join up with them, meaning Kate, Julia, and herself. Carlene had asked why she couldn't be friends with Margaret if she wanted to get in with them, but the answer was a vague "You'll see."

"I wanted to know if you thought I should tell Hawkeye about Tori and Ana."

"Oh...whatever you think."

"Carlene...do you even know what I'm talking about?"

"No."

"The accident...it was Tori's fault...Tori said that she'd killed Ana right before...," Margaret trailed off, realizing that Tori was walking their way.

"Hi. So, why were you yelling at Hawkeye this morning?" Tori asked, innocently.

"We haven't been seeing each other much lately is all. Not that it's any of your business," Margaret replied.

"Are you sure that seeing each other is the only thing you haven't been up to lately?"

"Tori, do me a favor and drop dead," Margaret said.

"Like Ana?" Tori said. Before Margaret could say anything, Tori turned and left.

"Watch your back, Tori," mumbled Margaret.

"Seems I've heard that line before," Carlene said.

"Huh? Well, anyway, should I tell him?"

"If you want," Carlene said and then walked away.

"Tori!" Carlene called. Tori spun around.

"What?"

"Margaret's going to tell Hawkeye about you killing Ana!"

"Does this mean...?"

"Yeah, I'm in."

Tori grinned at Carlene.

August 20, 1958 - early in the morning

Margaret got in that morning at 4:00 A.M. Hawkeye was a mad as he could be. He thrust his watch at her as if to say "Do you know what time it is?"

"We were drinking and talking and you know how it goes. Time just slipped away from me. By the time I knew what time it was, it was too late to call home. Stop carrying on and acting like a child; I wasn't doing anything wrong."

"I'm sure...I know you; undoubtedly you were doing something wrong," he said, with no humor in his voice.

"Yo, what's your problem? Guys do it all the time, and you expect us to understand. But, God forbid the shoe's on the other foot. That's when there's a problem. Get over it; life's a two-way street. So I had some beers with the girls last night, guys do it all the time."

"That's not all. You - "

"Yeah, yeah. I know that I left my clothes all over the place...and I took your twenty bucks. You're right; I didn't get the living room cleaned...that was because I had to wash my truck."

"The Chevy was better but you had to go trade it in, didn't ya?" he said.

"Hawkeye, we'll talk about this later, right now there's a ball game I wanna see."

Hawkeye's face nearly turned purple. A few seconds later, it went back to it's normal color, but he had a strange look on his face.

"Ya look like you just took a long, long look in the mirror. Now, tell me, hon, don't things look a h*lluva lot clearer?"

He shot her a Look. She smiled at him, angelically.

"I can see through that disguise, missy. You're no angel."

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

"Um...you weren't serious about that ball game, were you?"

"No! I just wanted to see how annoyed you'd get..."

"Let's say you just about pushed my last button then..."

She smiled at him, "That's what I was aiming for."

"Jeeze...I know it's a weird time, but I have to go to work because I promised to be in early," Hawkeye said.

"'Bye."

As soon as she was sure he'd left, she leaped for the phone and dialed Jake's number.

"Is it clear?" he asked, before she even said anything.

"Yeah, c'mon over."

They hung up. Not ten minutes later, there was a light knock at the door. Margaret went and let Jake in.

"Be quiet...Mickey's asleep in the other room," Margaret warned.

"Who's Mickey?"

"Hawkeye's son."

"Any relation to you?"

"No."

"Good."

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her close to him and tried to kiss her, but she pulled away. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Jake, please leave. I can't do this to Hawkeye."

"Why not? From what you've told me, I thought you always did this sort of thing."

"That was a long time ago. If you want, we can still be friends."

"Oh, no. Sorry, I don't work that way!" he said as he stormed out the door.

Noon

"Thanks, Daniel, I really appreciate your watching Mickey," Margaret said.

"No problem, love. Now, you should go or else Hawk's lunch break will be over with by the time you get there," Daniel replied.

On her way, she had to stop at every light and got stuck in a traffic jam.

"D*mn...at this rate, Mickey'll be twenty before I get there!" she mumbled.

Finally, after about half an hour, she got there. Of course, by this time, Hawkeye's break was over. She saw Carlene and asked her if she knew where Hawkeye was. Carlene said the last time she saw him was right after he came in. About five minutes later, she saw him walking into a patient's room. She stood outside the room for what felt like an eternity. When Hawkeye walked out of the room, he noticed her right away. She turned to him and hugged him.

"Now, I doubt you came here to do that," Hawkeye said.

"I sort of did...I had to remind myself how much I love you to keep from making a stupid mistake."

"Uh-oh...we weren't trying to kill ourself again, were we?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"No! Really, had I done what I was considering, I might have killed myself afterwards though. Um...I have something to tell you..."

"Oh?"

"Well, for starters, it's a good thing we're in a hospital right now, 'cause I think that I made need a doctor after I tell you this..."

"What are you going to tell me?"

"I almost - I didn't, but I came close to it - spent the night with someone else..."

She waited for his reaction.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I'd like to give out a few thank yous for this part of TGND3:

1) Cher for recording the song "Love on a Rooftop"
2) Mindy McReady for recording the song "Guys Do It All the Time"
3) Jeff and Rena (and the others who were in the O-Club chatting with me) who gave me suggestions for this story.