This summing up of his character seems to have hit close to the facts, because his friendly smile broadens into a wide grin. “So BJ’s been talking about me, has he? Yeah, that’s me. Did he tell you about the time Colonel Potter nearly…”
The utter lack of curiosity I feel in the advent of another story about Korea, even told from a different point of view, is lost when a key turns in the front door.
“Peg! I’m home at last,” BJ calls. Hawkeye and I follow Erin into the hallway, he carefully moving behind me. “Hi, Erin honey. Have a good day at school?”
“Yeah. Hawkeye’s here,” she tells him, a child’s bluntness getting over any difficult moment there could have been. He hugs me quickly, not really looking at me, and then moves on to the man next to me.
“Hawkeye? It really is you!”
“The one and only.” They go to shake hands, but then one of them decides that formality can go to hell and uses the contact to pull his—friend? lover?—into a firm hug. The contact is perhaps to long, involves a little too much hip as well as shoulder, but it breaks before I can really react to it.
“Good to see you again. What are you doing these days?”
“Nothing special—living in Maine, working in a hospital with actual wards, hiding the still under the sink. You?”
“Much the same. Barring being in Maine.” They share a grin, and then BJ catches my eye. “And no still. Really, Peggy.”
I sigh heavily and pointedly, letting a little answering grin show through. BJ hasn’t joked like he used to for ages, so it’s good to see it again even if it takes a stranger to bring it out. “Are you going to just stand there, or do you want dinner?”
- **
When I put my sewing away and headed up for bed that night, I realised I didn’t know where BJ and Hawkeye were, though it seemed logical to assume they were together. I checked on Erin—fast asleep, thumb in her mouth—and then opened the door of the guest room. Sure, I should have knocked, but sometimes a person does what they have to find out the truth.
The two of them were sitting on the bed, BJ at the pillow end with Hawkeye leaning back into his arms, and they were kissing. It seemed I’d opened the door real quietly, because they both had their eyes closed as they explored each other’s mouths. Something about the scene—the looks of contentment on their faces, the slight curve of BJ’s lips into a smile as he kissed Hawkeye, or the simple fact that these were two men, kissing—touched me. I’d say ‘deep inside’, but it was a little less emotional than that; I was glad to see BJ happy, but what I was aware of was being turned on by the sight.
I stood and watched until one of them broke the kiss (I couldn’t tell who), and then I knocked on the door. Two pairs of blue eyes opened rapidly. They moved apart with lightening speed, BJ looking decidedly sheepish. “Peggy- love- I’m…”
I smiled at him, reassuringly. “It’s okay, BJ. Sleep well, both of you. I’m going to leave the radio on overnight.”
He swallowed heavily, unsure of what to say until his—‘partner in crime’ seems appropriate, but ‘lover’ is perhaps kinder—until Hawkeye rescued him. “Goodnight, Peggy. And thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Hawkeye. Goodnight, BJ.”
“Goodnight, Peg,” BJ finally managed to get out.
I slipped out of the room and went to the bedroom I’d become so used to sleeping alone in over the past few years. What did one more night matter, if it made BJ happy? I could live with that.
End.
- **
BTW, my main concern is that Peg's turned into a near-MarySue. Yes? No? Maybe?