Rafe stopped the car and looked out at the Pacific. Evelyn had requested that he drive them to the beach because, as she explained, it was where she would write to him while he was overseas.

That seemed like a lifetime ago and in a sense it really was because so much had happened to the two of them and Rafe had no idea what they were going to do now. He knew he still loved Evelyn, probably more now than when he did before he left her. It didn't matter that she was having Danny's child, because now that child was his.

He knew he had to tell her that Danny knew, he just didn't know how. "Evelyn, I've got somethin' to tell you and you ain't goin' to like it." He finally said.

"Rafe, before you say anything I want you to know how glad I am that you came back. If I'd lost you too..." And her voice trailed off. She wanted to kick herself because it sounded so cold and uncaring. As hurt as she'd been that Danny had not made it through the mission alive, Rafe had and she was fighting a war inside about that. Her first reaction at seeing the man she loved, because she still loved him so much, was to run into his arms for him to hold her and never let her go. But that wasn't his right anymore, it was Danny's.

But he was gone now and Evelyn didn't know what she was going to do.

"Evelyn, I need to apologize to you." His voice broke into her thoughts.

She turned to look at him. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath before he ran a hand through his hair. "Danny knows about the baby. I know you told me not to tell him but I thought that if he knew, he would live."

Evelyn started to cry and put her head on Rafe's shoulder as he put his arm around her. "Oh, Rafe."

"I'm sorry." He told her. "I'm real sorry."

"It's not your fault. I should have had the courage to tell him myself and I had no right to ask you to keep something like that a secret. It wasn't fair to you...or to Danny."

He didn't have the right to ask, but felt compelled to nonetheless. "Would you have told me if the baby were mine?"

She sat up and looked at him, knowing what the answer was. "Yes." She whispered and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Oh hell, Evelyn." He sighed as she put her head back down on his shoulder and he put his arm back around her. "What a mess we've gotten ourselves in."

She wanted so badly to tell him she loved him, but she also knew it wasn't the time.

Rafe wanted so badly to kiss her and felt like a heel for even thinking about it. She wasn't his anymore and the baby she was carrying was evidence of that.

They sat together in the car and watched the sun set.

The day had finally taken its toll on her and she had laid across the front seat of the car, her head in Rafe's lap. He brushed the hair off of her forehead and he heard her sigh.

"Evelyn, you awake?" He leaned over, but couldn't see her face clearly in the dusk.

"I'm awake Rafe, just thinking."

"About Danny?" He asked as his chest got tight, afraid of the answer.

She nodded. "Yes, but not in the way your thinking, I'm sure."

"Did you love him?"

She nodded again. "Yes, but not in the way that I..." She stopped herself before the rest of it came out. She didn't have the right to tell him that she loved him and it was probably the last thing he wanted to hear from her.

The one question that Rafe had hung over them like a black cloud and he didn't know how to ask because in the end it wouldn't change anything. It was also none of his damn business. "Evelyn, what happened?"

"Between Danny and me?"

"Yea. If you don't want to tell me, just say it's none of my business and I'll never ask again."

She sat up so she could look at him because this was something that needed to be said face to face. "If anyone has a right to know Rafe it's you." She sighed and looked at him. "We'd had a milkshake at the Black Cat after we ran into each other outside the movie house. The girls spotted us together and you know how rumors get started. Everyone was assuming that Danny and I were seeing each other and I decided that maybe it was time to get out in the world again. I stopped by the airbase one afternoon and we ended up in his plane flying over Pearl Harbor. Well, after we landed one thing led to another and we..." She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "It only happened the one time because I knew things were moving too fast. But as a nurse I should have known that it only takes one time and here I am."

"Danny really loved you."

"I know he did and I wish that I could have loved him the way he deserved to be loved."

Darkness had fallen and Evelyn was rubbing her arms in the chill of the evening. Rafe could make out what she was doing in the starlight. "It's time I get you home, the girls are probably worried."

"I'd rather stay with you." She told him.

"You know we can't do that Evelyn. You need to be home." He was adamant.

"All right Rafe, if you insist."

He started the car and drove toward the nurse's bungalow. She'd fallen asleep on the way and when he pulled up to the front of the house he roused her. "Evelyn, you're home."

She opened her eyes and sighed. "I wish things had turned out differently."

"So do I Evelyn, but there ain't nothin' we can do to change it."

"I know that."

Rafe got out of the car and walked around to help Evelyn get out. He walked her to the front door and waited until she opened it and was standing inside. "Sleep well Evelyn."

"I will now that you're home." And she closed the door. Rafe stood there for a moment looking at the closed door wondering what he was going to do.

Evelyn stood on the other side wondering what she was going to do.

"Ev, are you all right?" She heard Barbara ask.

She turned to see Barbara sitting on the sofa in the living room and went to sit down next to her.

"We heard about Danny, I'm so sorry Ev."

"So am I."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Evelyn sighed and folded her hands in her lap. "Tell me that it's all right that I still love Rafe."

"That's where you've been this whole time, with him?"

She nodded. "We needed to talk. There wasn't time before he and Danny left and he needed to know about things."

"Did you tell him about..." Barbara started to ask her, referring to the night in the parachute hangar.

"I did. He had a right to know just as Danny had a right to know he was going to be a father. But I didn't tell Danny did I?"

"You did what you felt was best."

Evelyn smiled at her friend and took her hand. "I didn't because I was a coward. He had a right to know Barbara."

"You're the only one who knows that Ev, but you can't change what happened."

"When I saw Rafe the night before the attack knowing that I was pregnant, or at least suspecting I couldn't help but wish that I could have turned back time to the night in New York. It was so much less complicated because I was with the man I love and we almost stayed together that night."

"That's all in the past and now you have to figure out what you're going to do with your future."

"I know and I don't have a lot of time to figure it out." She sighed.

"You'll always have us Ev, you know that."

"I do." And she got up from the sofa. "I'm going to say goodnight now. I think a hot bath before bed sounds good so I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night Ev."

"Good night Barbara." And she headed up the stairs.