Finding The 4077th

Crisis

His mind was racing, where would Chris go? And why didn't he come to him? His heart began to beat faster as he looked around with precision for his son. They called him Hawkeye for nothing.

As he looked at the officers club he saw Radar step out and look around, Hawkeye immediately headed that way, as he came closer the worried-looking clerk saw Hawkeye, he nervously gave a little wave to get the men's attention. 'That must be a good sign', Hawkeye thought.

“Chris?” Hawkeye asked at the same time Radar said “ Inside under the bar counter!”

Hawkeye walked straight to the bar, with a nervous clerk walking close behind him.

“He just ran in and leaped under the counter! He's very upset, Hawkeye... ” Radar explained. Hawkeye knew the clerk was worried about Chris. It was always very scary to see the small boy during a panic attack.

“ I couldn't get him out from under there! Jees!... he's even breathing funny! ” Hawkeye, thanked the late teen because he was very grateful for his help but also to stop Radar from rambling on, right now he needed all his attention on his kid.

Looking underneath the counter, he saw Chris curled up with his knees close to his chest, staring out from behind his knees. His body shook slightly as he softly rasped for air. Although he had been crying, he wasn't crying now, and that worried the doctor. It would mean that Chris was having a full panic attack or was very close to one.

Chris didn't look good right now, it seems that he was right in the middle of one of the worst panic attacks he'd seen from his son, and it broke his heart to see the pain and fear in those young blue eyes.

He crouched beside Chris, who didn’t seem to notice him, Hawkeye could only see the top of Chris's eyes but they looked terrified.

“Hey kiddo, what are you doing?” Hawkeye whispered. But Chris didn't respond at all, so Hawkeye tried the direct approach. He needed this done quickly, Chris was breathing very shallow.

On his knees, the man crawled underneath to reach his very frightened child. Chris flinched as Hawkeye touched him at first and his breathing got worse but he still let himself be pulled away.

“Chris, hey, it’s dad. I came to get you, are you ok?” He said quietly.

‘Ok, ok I can work with this.’ Hawkeye thought, 'he is not fighting me or anything. So it could be worse!' he told himself even though he felt very worried, he had never seen Chris this bad.

Hawkeye slowly pulled Chris out from under the counter and sat down on the floor as he lifted the boy on his lap. He carefully moved the child around to face him so Hawkeye could look into his eyes. His eyes were so large, it was frightening, as the familiar look of scared wildlife looked back at the doctor.

Hawkeye's heart broke as the child grabbed his jacket and clung to it as he tried to breathe steadily again.

He kept talking to the child while looking at those big scared eyes until he saw Chris recognize him a little as the wildlife slowly disappeared and the blue eyes filled themselves with tears.

A small sob broke through. And Hawkeye felt very relieved, the attack often was over if Chris started crying again. Hawkeye hadn't seen Chris look like this in a long time.

"I'm sorry," Chris whispered before he broke down and started crying earnestly.

The man quickly scooped him up into his arms, embracing him tightly.

Chris sobbed as he buried his face in Hawkeye's chest as the man carried him to a bench, and sat down. He positioned Chris to sit comfortably on his lap. This was better than on the cold floor.