Finding The 4077th

Keep Up The Laughter

It was the day after Hawkeye's eyesight was recovered and Chris was still very shaken up about the whole thing. He was very clingy and Hawkeye seemed to get a bit annoyed about it. His dad was on duty at the moment and he told Chris that some distance would be good for them so he told the boy to stay in the Swamp. Chris almost refused but his dad had given him so many warnings these past days for punishment that he didn't want to risk it.

So there he was sitting on his bed trying to get his mind off it by doing his school work. It wasn't really working, he was reading one of his history books, and writing down some difficult words he didn't completely understand to ask his dad about later, but the annoying scared feeling he felt made it hard to concentrate. He always had that feeling when his dad was out of sight.

He knew his dad didn't mean it like that, but this felt like punishment. And he hated it. It felt like nobody wanted to spend time with him.

BJ was laying on his cot going over some letters of Peggy for the last twenty minutes. He felt for the boy, Chris just looked so sad and it was almost painful to watch. He wanted to do something that would cheer the child up.  But what?

His thoughts went back to yesterday, and it really hit home to him how hard the boy needed some laughter. He grinned as an idea started to form. He knew it was probably not much, but if he can make the little boy smile at least once then he can help him feel better. He stood up, grabbed one of his notebooks from his desk and a pencil and walked towards the child's bedside table.

"Hey," BJ said out of a sudden, making Chris jump a little.

"I just got a great idea." BJ said with excitement. The man had a mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye. Chris was familiar with that twinkle, his dad had that look often so he got a huge smile just by looking at it. This was going to be good.

BJ told the boy about a prank he wanted to try, and wanted to know if Chris wanted to help.

"B-but won't I get in trouble?" Chris asked softly as he felt his face get warm, he must be blushing like crazy.

"Of course not!" BJ grinned widely, "If we do it right, nobody will ever know." Chris smiled shyly as BJ showed him his notebook, and started explaining.

"I don't think my dad wants me doing anything bad..." Chris' voice trailed off. He looked at his hands, which were shaking slightly.

"Come on kid," BJ said kindly, "it'll be okay! We're going to have fun! "

At the nervous expression of the child he continued " And I promise that I will take all the blame for this. "

"Y-you promise Hawkeye won't get mad? "

"I promise, Hawkeye can appreciate a joke. And besides, the point is not to get caught." BJ said, ignoring the obvious awkwardness from the boy.

This seemed to calm the boy down a little," Okay, I'll help." Chris said, getting more excited. He really wanted to help, he liked BJ and it felt great that someone wanted to spend time with him. They immediately started planning their first one.

A couple hours later Hawkeye was walking back from post op. He sighed deeply. He felt bad for keeping more distance between him and his kid. It just felt mean to him, especially when Chris was still feeling a bit clingy but he was trying to make the child a bit more independent, even though he had missed the boy a lot himself. 

He entered the Swamp and found BJ and Chris sitting together on a cot giggling, well his son was giggling, BJ just had a huge grin. Hawkeye stood there for a second just being very relieved his kid seemed happier again. "Dad!" Chris said happily as he noticed the man, he jumped up and immediately got the man a drink.