Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people that you recognize from the movie Pearl Harbor. This is the first fanfic that I've written. Please let me know what you think!

~Lauren


"Don't forget to send me mail, Rafe." The girl standing by the old yellow car was of medium height, scrawny for her age, and trying her hardest to put on a brave face as she looked up at her brother. It might have worked, too, if it hadn't been for the telltale brightness in her eyes and the way her chin trembled with the effort of holding back tears. "Don't you dare forget about me."

"I could never forget 'bout you, Alex," the older boy replied as he pulled her into a hug. It wasn't something he did often—teenage siblings didn't just hug to express themselves—and for a second he wished he'd told her more, showed her more, how much he cared about her. "You know that. I love you."

"Love you, too," she replied, her voice muffled against his chest. Her skinny arms clung just a little desperately to the person who'd always been there for her, no matter what. When their parents were fighting, when someone picked on her at school, when she did something wrong and needed help fixing it, she'd always been able to go to Rafe. He'd make fun of her for the mistakes, sure, but he never turned her away.

She didn't want to leave him behind. To be honest, she didn't want to leave any piece of her life behind—not their father or their house or the planes or her friends—but she knew that she'd miss her brother most of all. "I don't wanna go, Rafe."

"I know. I don't want you to go either, but we ain't got a choice," Rafe pointed out softly as they released each other. "We'll see each other again. You know I'm gonna look out for you always."

She nodded, her limp brown hair falling across her shoulders in long strings that she pushed back roughly as she turned to the other boy standing nearby. Even though she knew he'd probably just come over because hanging out with Rafe was what he did, plus it was the easiest way to avoid his drunk of a father, a part of Alex wanted to believe that he'd actually come to say goodbye to her. "G'bye, Danny Walker. I'll miss you, too."

"Don't you talk like you ain't comin' back sometime," he warned as he pulled her, a little awkwardly, into a hug. "You're comin' back to see us, right?

She nodded again, a determined look on her face.

"Alexia, get in the car!"

"Yes, Ma," she replied quickly, her eyes on the two boys. "I'll miss you both." She climbed obediently into the waiting vehicle as it roared to life; their mother never had been one for long goodbyes. As the car pulled away from the Tennessee ranch, the teenage girl looked out the back of the window and let the tears fall down her face as she got further and further away from her brother and best friend—and the only home she'd ever known.