Finding The 4077th

Original Family

All doubt about this being Chris's family left him. They even looked related, it was pretty clear.

He hoped he didn't mess up his chance of adopting Chris by shouting at the young man. But he still wanted to know what the man said. He was irritated and very tired, his kid was a mesh as well, and he wanted answers now!

"Well!" Hawkeye pressed on, not being able to hide his irritation.

"I said that the last time I saw him, he was six years old. And I called him by his Dutch name!" He answered nervously, holding his hands up like he was standing in front of a wild animal and trying to show the beast he didn't mean any harm.

"I didn't mean to upset him, I didn't think he would react that way."

"Shouldn't I have done that?" He nervously asked Sidney.

"This reaction has nothing to do with what you said. But more with his repressed trauma must be. Which I believe will probably be the loss of his parents." Sidney explained calmly.

Chris looked up at that, he couldn't remember, but he wasn't stupid, he knew that the face, that sometimes popped up into his mind, must be from his real father. It was a terrible image and Chris didn't want to remember it. Hawkeye was his father now, why couldn't they just accept that.

"So anything which makes him want to remember them hurts and scares him. The Dutch itself could be a big enough trigger to get this reaction from him." Sidney declared.

"Wouter" Hawkeye mumbled. Chris looked up at that, he got a strange feeling hearing that. Like it scared him that Hawkeye knew that name. He didn't want Hawkeye to use it. It felt like the bad colliding with the good he had found.

Letting go of Chris who seemed calmer, Hawkeye noticed his color and breathing were back to normal but he got the scared wildlife look again.

It's been a while since the last time he looked like that. Hawkeye managed to get Chris to drop that look after a week. Still took him a whole week of jokes and reassuring words. He got that look back every time someone came into the room or made an unknown sound to the boy.

"Well I'm off for my shift" Trapper said while taking his leave.
"Good luck, you have the Swamp to yourselves for hours." and with a sympathetic look to Chris and Hawkeye left.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare him, I just didn't think about it." The teen said, holding out his hand to shake Hawkeye's.

"Let me introduce myself, I'm Frans. You must be Benjamin " he said with a nervous smile.

Ohh boy, he scared the teen a little too much, he must be nervous too. I hope he doesn't think I'm a maniac or something. Hawkeye thought.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you, I didn't expect that much of a reaction from Chris. And please, my friends call me Hawkeye!"

Hawkeye said, shaking the man's hand, with a hopefully normal smile "I get a bit protective over him sometimes."

"I get that and I'm very happy about that as well, I'm glad to know you really care." He looked with a fond expression at the boy.

"Last time I saw him, he was only 6 years old, he still looks so much like his mother, same nose and eyes, just as small as well. Not that his father was a big guy but still. He must be smart as well."

Frans said with a big grin. "He loves to read and write," Hawkeye said proudly.

"His dad loved that as well, his mother was a wildcat and his dad the calculated type."

Frans said with a fond expression.

He held out his hand to Chris. "I don't know if you want to shake on it, but I would like to, I missed you. We used to hang out together when I needed to babysit you"