Title: Redeployment by Tara Keezer
Fandom: MASH
Pairing: Hawkeye/BJ
Categories: Post-series, Romance, Angst, kind-of established relationship
Length: Medium (3409 words)
Warning: None
Rating: Not rated by author - very mild


Author on LJ: News of the Weird
Website: Elemental Vision


Summary: After eight years apart, it takes an accident - or a miracle - to bring Hawkeye and BJ back together again.

Review:

BJ's in town for a job interview when he accidentally knocks a local kid down with his car. Since nobody else wants to help, he and the mother load the kid up and drive him to a nearby clinic - which just happens to be run by the brilliant but irascible Dr Ben. (Guess who?) There isn’t time for much of a reunion; BJ is pressed into service to help with the treatment, but when it's apparent that the boy is on the mend he becomes aware that his presence is not particularly welcome. Indeed, Hawkeye can't get rid of him fast enough and seems to want never to set eyes on him again.

Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as that. BJ has omitted to sign his donation cheque, and when he gets back to his hotel room he finds Hawkeye waiting for him. This is when the truth gradually emerges; the relationship they had in Korea, the way it ended, the damage it did.

These are not quite the characters we are used to from the TV series; it's true that Hawkeye always carried a kind of inner darkness and a vulnerability which led to the mental breakdown referenced in the story, but the conventional picture of BJ was of a good-natured and essentially grounded family man who would ride out most kinds of trouble and end up making the right decisions. Here we have a less comfortable reading of BJ, as a man who has reluctantly faced up to the truth about himself and does not much like what he sees. When Fate brings them back together and gives them a second chance to take control of their lives, it's up to them to take advantage of it.

In many ways this is not a happy story although the ending is positive. It does, however, give a beautifully nuanced picture of two characters who can at last begin to overcome their individual difficulties and finally think about making a life together; that, in itself, is a more than satisfactory outcome.


Link: Redeployment