Finding The 4077th

Superheroes

Hawkeye felt terrible, the court case scared his son more than he thought, two days before the trial the boy stopped talking, and now that it was over, he was still very quiet and held on to him for the whole night. He did laugh a little as the adults were celebrating and getting a bit drunk. But it was still very difficult to put his son to bed that night. Chris cried a lot and he didn't want to let go of his dad.

Chris was almost hysterical, so Hawkeye decided to hold him close and tell him some stories, till the child was deeply asleep. It didn't take as long as he thought, but that reaction and the fear in the boy's eyes were still clear in his mind.

He looked at his sleeping child, Chris looked adorable like this, you would never know he was so scared and nervous if you saw him sleeping like this. He just looked very peaceful.

Hawkeye sighed, he needed to see Chris happy again, he didn't want his son thinking back to his childhood and only remembering anxiety and sadness. He sat there for a couple of minutes just thinking, he heard BJ slightly snore in the background.

'What did Chris like to do? He likes to do puzzles and riddles, reading, writing, his toys, and of course his comic books and superheroes.' Slowly an idea started to form, and a grin broke free, as Hawkeye got up. For this plan to work, he needed to wake up Radar!

The next morning Chris woke up slowly, stretching on his bed. He turned over, facing his still sleeping dad. He felt very relieved seeing the man close, he still woke up scared most of the time. And that court of yesterday still scared him, what if they changed their mind? It felt like they wanted to kill his dad right in front of him, and it kinda hit close to home.

He shook his sad feelings away and tried to be positive. Seeing his dad did make him feel a lot better, things were getting back to normal.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to remove sleep from them before he got out of bed. He said good morning to Wally, who apparently fell on the floor during the night. He put the bunny safely back on his pillow before he left to go to the latrine.

When he came back, he heard his dad stir and groan softly, meaning the man would be waking up soon.

The boy got a huge smile as he jumped at the change to get his dad's coffee. He loved helping and making sure the people he cared about were happy. That's what you do for friends and family!

The small boy collected his dad's cup and looked over to a sleeping BJ and collected his cup as well. He cared a lot about his friend too.

Chris walked barefoot over the compound to the mess hall, he wore a red pajama with a red car at the front, it wasn't his favorite pair, as he didn't care about cars at all, but Kellye gave him this one, and he liked her, so he liked wearing them.

Chris loved the early mornings of the 4077th, it was peaceful most of the time, and he greeted the few people he passed. He was a bit proud of himself that he wasn't afraid to greet them as he didn't know them very well. But it was only polite to do so, and they greeted him back with a smile. He started to feel better, things were still the same, and people were still okay. He even started to feel giddy.

He came back inside the Swamp and saw his dad sitting up, his eyes were sleepy and his hair was messed up. The little boy giggled at the sight and handed over the man's drink.

Hawkeye was barely awake as he heard the small giggle he would recognize everywhere. He looked at his kid and got a cup of coffee handed to him.

“How do you keep doing that?” Hawkeye said sleepy, as he gave Chris an affectionate hug.

“Thanks, kiddo!” He took a sip. “Oh, Radar asked for your help for this morning.”

The boy walked over to BJ and put his cup next to his cot before he turned around and looked at his dad with a huge smile and he asked in his slightly squeaky voice “Really? With what?“