This is an AU fanfiction that is based on an episode of Quantum Leap, so let me apologize in advance for any historical inaccuracies. All characters except original ones belong to Naoko Takeuchi.
Prologue: The Town of Calhoun
The date is September 4th 1953, the place is Calhoun Georgia; Population: 4537. Calhoun is a small town that depends a good deal on its cotton, peanut and peach harvests. Everyone there has a job to do or something that they are known for in the town. Of course at the time the town was divided between blacks and whites, but most folks weren't prejudiced, it was just the way things were. In spite of that it was a very nice place to raise a family. However during World War II and more recently in the Korean War this town sent away some of it's sons to fight, some never to return.
When the war ended Calhoun's sons started coming home, almost all to worried, crying, happy families. But it was a different story at the home of Peter Shields; a blue eyed man whose black hair stared to gray. He lived with his wife, Anna; youngest son, Will; and his daughter Esther. The problem was his oldest Darien, it wasn't that they weren't happy to see him again, but he was bringing something home that Anna doesn't want and the neighbors might not understand.
For most of the war Darien was stationed as an embassy guard and during that duty he met a Japanese girl named Tuskino Usagi. He mentioned her in letters but he shocked them all when they got a letter saying that the two of them got married. Anne's brother, Billy, was killed in World War II and she didn't except that her son would marry one of the people who in her eyes killed her brother along with other good men and a good number of the people in town felt the same way.
The two of them were going to be home the next day along with several other troops at a big homecoming. He hoped that his son knew what he was doing.