This is a bit of a twist on more traditional stories. All comments are welcome and appreciated. Please tell me what you think!

Margaret Houlihan paced back and forth in the small room in the back of Calvary Church. For the moment she was alone, and her mind was racing. In just thirty minutes, she was due to march down the aisle, and the proverbial butterflies were doing a number on her stomach. This would be her third wedding, and so far her track record wasn't very good. Two husbands, two divorces, one child, and now she was about to try again. She'd think she was crazy, if only she didn't love him so much. Of course, she'd thought she'd loved the last two when she married them, but now, with this man, something was different. Just the thought of him brought a smile to her face, and she stopped her pacing and sat down at the small table, carefully arranging her gown so as not to wrinkle the white silk and taffeta.

She wasn't generally one given to reminiscing, but what better time than now to relive how she'd gotten to this point? They'd met for the first time in Korea, at the dear old 4077th. Fighting the blood and death, boredom and bad food, they'd become friends, dear friends, but not lovers. Time had blurred the memories, and she liked to think that maybe she would have loved him then if she'd given him half a chance….but no, her thoughts were occupied with someone else then, and he had just been a friend. When the war ended, they parted, always intending to stay in touch, but somehow that never happened. She had gone on with her life, gotten married, had a daughter, and he had settled down and resumed his old life. It wasn't until a full ten years after the end of the war that she'd seen him again. It was after her divorce, the second one, and she'd relocated to leave the memories behind. It had really been only chance that she'd picked Boston as a place to go to. It was a big city, and the idea of running into him hadn't really crossed her mind. But then, one day she had, and she would never forget what happened after that.

It had been a dreary rainy day in Boston, and she had just picked up her daughter from the woman who took care of her between the time she got out of school and Margaret got off of work. "Did you have a good day at school today, sweetheart?" she asked.

"It was fun today, Mommy. Mrs. Jenkins was telling us about dinosaurs and how they lived around here billions and billions of years ago…"

"I think you mean millions of years, honey." Margaret corrected her absentmindedly while looking around for a free cab to hail. Usually they took the bus to save money, but it had been a long day, and the last thing she wanted to do was stand in the rain at the bus stop.

"Uh-huh. And did you know that there were dinosaurs as big as houses that ate tons of trees in one day? And then little ones only as big as chickens! Wouldn't it be neat to have a dinosaur for a pet, Mommy?"

"I think we'd better just stick with the gerbil….Oh, there's one!" She hurriedly signaled the cab, and clutching her daughter's hand ran out in the rain to get it. But before she could get there, a man came up, seemingly out of nowhere to claim the taxi. "Hey! That's my cab! How dare you!" She screamed at him, cold, tired, wet, and wanting just to get herself and her daughter home.

"I'm afraid you must be mistaken. Now, if you will excuse me…" He brushed her off and turned to climb inside the car.

The voice sent a jolt of recognition through her, and she craned her neck to get a better look at his face under the hat he was wearing. "Charles Winchester?"

The man turned swiftly at her words. "Yes, how do you know my….Good Lord! Margaret!" He stared at her, shocked.

Her anger forgotten, Margaret threw her arms around him. "Charles! I can't believe it's you! What are you doing here?"

He hesitantly returned the hug. "I live here. The question is, what are you doing here?"

"I live here too! Or have for the past six months anyway. This is incredible! How long has it been?"

There was an urgent tug on her sleeve. "Mommy, I'm getting wet."

"Oh yes, dear. I'm sorry, what am I thinking? Here, Charles. Shall we share the cab?"

"Oh, of course." All three piled in, and after receiving directions, the driver began moving.

"Ten years," said Winchester.

"What?" Margaret was occupied in a futile attempt to dry off her daughter.

"Ten years. It's been ten years since we saw each other."

"That's right! It's been ages! And now we just bump into each other on the street." She smiled up at him, delighted to see an old friend. "Tell me, how have you been?"

"Oh, I've been puttering along rather nicely. And from the looks of things, you've done rather well the past ten years yourself." He glanced pointedly at the little girl.

"Oh! What am I thinking? You'll have to forgive me, I'm not usually this scatterbrained. Charles, this is my daughter, Cassandra. Cassie, this is Dr. Winchester, an old friend of mine."

"Hello Cassandra, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Dr. Winchester," the girl replied very seriously. "You can call me Cassie, if you want. Everybody else does."

"Very well then, Cassie. And you may call me Charles. Not everyone else does, but I will make an exception in your case."

"Okay." Cassie smiled at him. "What kind of a doctor are you?"

"I'm a surgeon. That means I operate on people."

"I know what it means. I'm seven, you know, not a baby."

"Well I apologize. In the future I won't make that mistake again. Obviously you're a very intelligent girl." Charles was amused, but replied in a very solemn tone.

Margaret beamed at the two, her sour mood a thing of the past. "Are you still in thoracics, Charles?"

"Yes, I've been head of thoracic surgery at Boston Mercy since returning from Korea. What about you?"

"Right now I'm working as head nurse of the pediatrics ward at Boston General. Before moving here I was in a small town hospital doing a bit of everything. Getting back to a big city hospital is a nice change."

"I assume then that you left the army?"

"Oh, I resigned my commission ages ago. Just a few months after the end of the war, in fact. I wanted to go into the private sector, and then of course I got married and had my little angel here, so I would have had to leave anyway. Do you have any children?"

"Me? No, I've never married. The best I can do is spoil my sister's children. And your husband, what line of work is he in?"

"Actually, I'm divorced. It was final just a few months ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

"Don't worry about it. You couldn't have known."

There was an awkward pause, and then Charles said, "Well, we're about at where I get out. I'd love to see you again, catch up a bit?"

"Oh yes, I can't just let you slip away again! Here," She pulled a scrap of paper out of her bag and scribbled down her phone number. "This is my number. Give me a call and we'll get together, soon!"

The taxi stopped in front of an imposing looking apartment building. Charles leaned up to pay the driver. "Margaret, it was wonderful to see you again, and rest assured, you shall be hearing from me soon. Cassie, it was a pleasure to meet you."

"The same goes for me, Charles," answered Margaret.

"Bye!" Cassie waved cheerfully. The cab door shut and the car started moving again. "He was a nice man, wasn't he, Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetie. He was one of Mommy's best friends when I was in Korea."

"Oh. Are we going to see him again?"

"I think so, Cassie, I think so." The rest of the ride was completed in silence, Margaret lost in her thoughts, remembering Korea and everything that had happened there. When they pulled up in front of their apartment building, she leaned up to pay the driver, only to find that it had already been taken care of by Charles. She escorted her daughter upstairs in a better mood than she had been in for weeks.

Charles had telephoned her the next day, and the two had met on their lunch breaks. They ended up talking so much that they'd barely managed to eat, and he'd invited her to dinner that weekend, saying to bring Cassie along and she could play with his niece and nephews. So, that Saturday Margaret arrived at his apartment at 7:00 sharp, with her daughter in tow.

"Hello, Margaret, Cassie." Charles opened the door. "Come in."

They stepped inside, Cassie's eyes getting round at the sight of the opulence spread around casually. "Wow. Are you rich, Charles?"

He chuckled. "Let's just say I am rather well-to-do." Taking their coats, he hung them in the hall closet. "The others are in the living room, if you'll follow me."

Mother and daughter trailed after him into the other room. "You have a lovely home, Charles."

"Thank you. Ever since my time in that festering sewer, I make more of an effort to have a few creature comforts around. Ah, here we are. Honoria, this is Margaret Houlihan and her daughter Cassie. Ladies, this is my sister, Honoria Luciano."

"I'm happy to meet you at last, Honoria. I heard so much about you while we were in Korea." Margaret extended her hand, which Honoria took.

"I've heard quite a bit about you as well. My brother's letters tended to be very interesting to listen to."

"I'd bet there are a few stories I could tell you that he never did."

Honoria laughed. "No doubt, and I may just have to coerce you into telling me a few of those at some point. I'm sure they'd be fascinating."

Margaret smiled back, immediately liking the woman. "I don't think it will take much coercion."

"Would you like a drink, Margaret?" Charles was over by the bar.

"I'd love one. Gin and tonic, I think. But if I could borrow your restroom first?"

"Of course, down the hall, second door on the left." After she left the room, Charles turned to Cassie who was looking a little lost. "Now what would you like to drink? I have several types of juices, and even some soda-pop."

"Do you have grape Nehi?"

"You like grape Nehi, do you? Well, I think I might be able to come up with one of those." He rummaged in the small refrigerator, pulling out a bottle. "You know, I used to know someone else who was rather fond of this beverage."

"Did you know Radar too?"

"That's right, I suppose your mother would have told you about him." He handed her the bottle. "Now be careful not to spill."

"Would you like to meet my children, Cassie?" asked Honoria. "They're just about your age." Without waiting for an answer, she stuck her head around the corner. "Kids! Come in here!" A few moments later, a girl and two boys trotted in.

"Oh, hello," said the girl. "My name's Emily Luciano, and these are my brothers, Tony who's six, and Aaron who's five. I'm eight."

Cassie smiled shyly. "Hi. My name's Cassie Pierce, and I'm seven."

Charles had been in the process of swallowing and very nearly spewed the mouthful across the room, promptly going into a coughing fit. "Charles! Are you alright?" Honoria asked worriedly, and all four children turned to stare at him.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Cassie, what did you say your last name was?"

"Pierce," she answered. "It's the same as my dad's," she then added helpfully.

Just then Margaret came back into the room, realizing at hearing the last comment that she was going to have to do some explaining.

"Come on, Cassie," said Emily. "You can come play with us." The four kids exited the room.

Margaret gave Charles a tentative smile, not quite sure what to say next. She'd known the truth would come out sometime, but she hadn't been expecting it this soon. "I suppose you're wondering about that." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes, you could say that. Perhaps this isn't any of my business, but is her father who I think?

Honoria regarded the two for a moment and decided now would be a prudent time to make herself scarce. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'm going to go call that husband of mine. I don't know where he could be." She left the room.

"How about that drink now?" suggested Margaret.

"Oh yes, of course." He handed it to her.

She took the proffered glass and then sighed, deciding to get it over with. "Yes, Hawkeye is her father." She waited for his reaction.

"Oh." He hesitated. "Hawkeye Pierce is your ex-husband?"

"You sound like you're in shock."

"I think maybe I am. Although, thinking about it, you two were rather close in Korea."

"We were," she agreed. "It's a long story. How would you like to hear the shortened version?"

"I confess, I am rather curious to know just how this came about."

"Okay." She took a deep breath and sat down on the couch. "Hawkeye and I fell in love in Korea. We didn't do a whole lot about it then, but after getting back to the states, he called me, I went out to Maine to see him, and never ended up going back to California. We married in 1955, and Cassie was born a little over a year later. For a while, we were very happy."

"But things didn't stay that way?"

"No, they didn't. Hawkeye is a dear man. I loved him, I really did, and for that matter, he loved me, but we never should have tried to make things permanent. We were just too different and the marriage was a disaster." She grinned ruefully. "Hawkeye always had a roving eye, and although he did pretty well for the first couple years, he really couldn't suppress it."

"He didn't cheat on you? Even I wouldn't expect that of him."

"No, nothing like that. He wasn't like Donald at all. It just became clear that he could never be happy with only one woman for the rest of his life. Medicine always has been and always will be his first love. Not to make him shoulder all the blame, since I did my share of falling out of love and pushing him away too. We tried to make it work for Cassie's sake, but it just got too hard. It was a mutual decision to split, and I think it was the right one. We're better as friends than as spouses. Really the only good thing that came of our years together was our daughter, and I wouldn't trade my angel for anything in the world."

"I must say, this is a bit of a surprise. I did not expect Pierce, of all people, to be your daughter's father. He gave you full custody?"

"No, we have joint custody. I wouldn't deprive Cassie of her father , and I couldn't take his daughter away from him either. He dotes on her like nothing else. But he did agree to let me have her the majority of the time. She goes up to Crabapple Cove some weekends, and every other holiday, stuff like that. That's why I moved to Boston actually. It's close, but I don't have to live in the same small town with the man, not to mention work in the same hospital."

Charles sat silently for a moment, processing the information. "Well, I for one am glad you decided to come to Boston. Otherwise we never would have met up again."

"I'm glad too. I've really enjoyed seeing you again this past week."

"And I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot more of me."

They talked, and eventually Honoria returned with her husband in tow and they ate dinner. Margaret stayed too late that night, far past Cassie's bedtime, but hadn't been able to tear herself away. She hadn't made many friends since moving to Boston, too busy with her job and her daughter to think about a social life, and the conversation with an old friend filled a sort of need inside her.