Erin toddled along the beach, the pebbles huge under her tiny Mary Janes.  Occasionally one shifted unexpectedly, throwing her off balance as an ankle turned.  Behind her, Peg hung back, almost stationary at times.  They progressed at the pace of an inquisitive toddler:  Erin had an eye on everything.  All was new and fascinating, from the speckles on the stones to the waves lapping little pools at water’s edge.

Up ahead, her father halted by a large boulder.  Turning to look at his family coming along so slowly, he sat down to wait.  Hawkeye took a few steps back to join him.

“So this is Crabapple Cove,” said B.J.  “You talked about it all the time; it’s good to get to see everything that means so much to you.  Not just the town; not just your folks—well, your Dad.  Nice to meet him, by the way.”  B.J. gave Hawkeye (and, by extension, Daniel Pierce) a quick nod and smile.  “This, though—”  He gestured broadly round the bay.  “—this is the very Crabapple Cove itself, I take it.”

“Yup.  The one and only.”

“Well, it’s not Mill Valley.”  B.J. nudged Hawkeye in the ribs.  “But I’m prepared to call it a good second best.  All due apologies, Hawk.  Your Dad’s been great putting us up, you taking time off to show us round and so on; but … I think it’s only fair to say we’ll be glad when we finally get to go home.”

Hawkeye remembered getting the letter back at the start of July.  “I just wanted to tell you that I’m finally out of the army,” B.J. had written.

Of course, they managed to screw with our plans one last time.  You got my last letter?  Like I said, we finally decided they were keeping me in for the indefinite future, and rented out the house till the end of the summer.  So now they decide I can go home, and we can’t till the lease is up!  We could maybe stay with Peg’s folks, but their place isn’t that big.  So we’ve decided to take ourselves a vacation.

“Home is where the heart is?” he ventured.

B.J. twisted round to look at Peg and Erin.  The child had stopped dead in her tracks, squatted down, and was leaning over close to a little rock pool, peering into it.  “Well, right at the moment my heart is just down there,” he said, turning back to Hawkeye but pointing over his shoulder.  “Home is California.”

Whatever Erin was looking at in the pool must have startled her, for she jerked back suddenly and almost fell over.  B.J. started up in sudden alarm; but Peg was instantly holding a hand at the little girl’s back to steady her.

“Did Korea really happen, Hawk?  It seems light years away, here in Maine.”

“It happened, Beej,” said Hawkeye flatly, and got a sideways glance.

Erin poked a finger between the pebbles and came up with a pink scallop shell.  She turned it over in her hand, and giggled up at her mother.

“Well, we weren’t here the last few years, were we?” added Hawkeye drily.

B.J. scuffed his feet lightly through the pebbles at his feet.  “Pick up our lives where they should never have left off?”  He looked back down the beach.  “It’s not been fair to Peg, no.  Or Erin.  And whether Korea feels real or not, it sure as hell feels like years since I’ve been in our own home in Mill Valley.”

“See the seesell, Daddy!” Erin called.  She rose awkwardly, and began to trot towards them.

“I know how you feel,” said Hawkeye soberly.  “I got back last fall, and there are times I’m not sure I’m home yet.”

Notes

  This story was written for tjs_whatnot in the Candy Hearts gift exchange, and originally posted to the Archive of Our Own on 6 February 2023, with the reveal on Valentine’s Day.  It was uploaded here on 21 February 2023.