A/N 9/6/2018: Okie Dokie guys, I wrote this after ANOTHER!, rather shitty day. Although it didn't have the expensive consequences of blowing a tire, it did rather ruin the plans of attending the local pagan gathering I wanted to go to with my ma. A saw at work broke down and they called a mandatory Saturday, even though I said in front of 3 of my bosses I needed it off for a religious shindig...Because I was polite! And waited until they were done speaking to each other, I apparently lost the shot of having it off...so much for manners. Anyway, I hope y'all are having better days, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Much love... ~Angel
That first week while stationed at Pearl Harbor went by quickly for Bella and the other nurses. It was mostly helping out around the hospital and getting a feel for where things were. It was the same for Danny, only it was slightly easier for him, as he did most of his exercises in the air. At the end of the end of the first week they were all there, everyone decided to take their first true outing to the beach, and have a bit of a sunset party. It held the same beauty to Bella as a sunset on La Push beach. Danny noticed her preoccupation as she stared into the driftwood fire as everyone else spoke around them.
"What's on your mind, Bell?" he asked softly, as she leaned back into his chest.
"I was just thinking of the fires an old friend and I used to attend at the local beach when my family stayed in the Pacific Northwest. The feeling is the same, but the scenery, while equally beautiful, holds a warmth that is missing from the northern Pacific," she told him. She chuckled.
"Now instead of watching for whales, we have to watch for sharks." Danny chuckled at her addendum.
"Rafe and I were completely landlocked in Tennessee. Neither of us saw the ocean. Now he has crossed the Atlantic, and I'm in paradise in the middle of the Pacific." Bella hummed happily in his arms.
The rest of the pilots had struck up a game of football before the light could completely fade. The wind was gaining strength, and they could all fell a storm blowing in, but that didn't stop everyone from enjoying the outdoors as they could. Bella laughed at the antics of the other pilots as they tackled and wrestled with each other, trying to get the ball. Bella couldn't help but laugh extremely hard. That was, until she heard the shutter of the camera that Betty had brought with her. Bella looked over to see Betty lowering the camera from Bella's direction.
Bella gave Betty a look that said she wasn't amused, though Betty simply returned with a look full of mischief. She didn't like having her picture taken, no matter if it was the past or the future, she always felt like a cow compared to the other girls. She knew it wasn't logical, but everyone had their hangups, she supposed. They all stayed at the beach for a while after sunset. Well, all but Evelyn. Evelyn had made it a routine to write to Rafe practically every day. Bella would sometimes sneak in a letter with Evelyn's to let him know what was going on, but she mostly just told Evelyn to give Rafe her good thoughts.
As Red and the boys were gathering blankets and things for the girls, Danny was content to stay where he was, with Bella in his arms, and so he did for a long while after everyone had left. He waved the boys off as they offered to take him and Bella home, but he just wanted this time with his girl. He was awash in so many emotions for the beautiful creature here with him. And he truly meant beautiful. Both physically attractive with dark mahogany hair, hazel eyes that on first pass look chocolate, but with a ring of dark forest green around the outside edge that bled into brown in the center, and full soft pink lips. He couldn't get enough of kissing her, just to feel and taste those lips.
"I love you, Bella," he whispered into her ear. He said it so softly, Bella wasn't all that sure she heard correctly at first. She turned to see his face in the light of the fire, and saw the same emotion written all over his countenance.
"I love you," she responded. "Danny, I-" But she never got to finish her thought because he surged forward and captured her lips in a gentle and needy kiss. Danny lowered her slowly onto the blanket they shared and asked her with his eyes if he had gone too far. Bella smiled up at him before kissing him once more, inviting his tongue into her mouth and savoring his taste. She gave a small moan as she tasted the divine mix of chocolate and coffee. She never thought that the two tastes, combined with a taste she could only assign to Danny, could have ever been this tempting, but it drove her absolutely wild.
Soon, before either of their brains caught up to their actions, they were both divesting the other of their clothes. Bella wasn't worried about being caught. They were well enough hidden amongst the dunes so they didn't have to worry about the tide earlier in the evening, No, now she worried that Danny would stop. And she most certainly didn't want that. Their heavy breaths mixed and heated the air between them as Danny began kissing her neck as Bella moaned at the sheer pleasure he was giving her at his touch alone. It was a trick to get her out of her stockings and to pull up her slip. She envied the simplicity of men's fashions for a moment.
Danny pulled back one final time before they joined, wanting to make absolutely sure this was what she wanted. And boy, did he hope that she wanted this. This siren had been haunting his every thought for the last two and a half months. One things he was thankful for, they didn't seem to need words to communicate because he saw the truth in her eyes. He kissed her as he took his hard cock in hand, and coated himself in her juices before he slowly and fluidly eased himself into her.
It was heaven for the both of them, and they sighed together in happiness at being joined. Danny reveling in the way she hugged him tightly, and Bella marveling how he filled her, feeling every rigid inch of him as he entered her. She was then thankful for the drunken frat party Jess dragged her to two weeks after the Cullen's left. It was a night filled with everything Edward would have hated. Smoking both cigarettes and pot, drinking, and a one night stand with a complete stranger. She was thankful for it now, because it was a completely human right of passage, and it took all of the hurt and awkwardness out of her first time with Danny.
Danny, after entering her, had held still so they both could become accustomed to the other. He certainly knew he had to find a way to maintain his composure and not just take what he wanted from her. He wanted this to be a night she wouldn't forget as well. But soon enough he began to move, and at the first pull and push back in, both of them moaned once more in primal pleasure. Danny continued the movement, pulling nearly all the way out before pushing back in. It was driving Bella mad, the slow pace he had set, and she started thrusting her hips up in time with his in need for more.
"Danny," she said with a whimper. "Danny, please. Please go faster. I promise not to break."
Danny gave in to her pleas and started to quicken his pace, rolling his hips a bit so his pelvic bone rubbed against her clit. The extra sensation caused Bella to cry out to the stars above, and she clung to his back hard enough to leave nail tracks that would take days maybe even weeks to heal. His breathing picked up as he felt heat begin to coarse through his system. But he would wait. Wait until Bella had had her pleasure as well. This wasn't just about him. He took one of her hands that had been fisting the blanket beneath her.
"Ugh. Oh! B-Bella," he ground out. Bella couldn't reply with anything more than a small moan with every thrust into her tight channel. Finally. Finally, he began to feel her walls flutter around him. Danny picked up his intensity, driving back into her just a little harder, taking her at her word that she wouldn't break.
"Oh! Oh! Yes! Yes, Danny! YES! OOOHHHHH!" Bella cried as she clenched around him, spasming in her completion, and pulling Danny's finish from him in a loud moan. They rode out their finishes before Danny collapsed at her side and gathered her in his arms, kissing the top of her head, as she regained her normal breathing pattern.
Oh yes. He loved her. And he promised the universe itself he wouldn't screw it up.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
Rafe sat at a table penning a letter to Evelyn when he heard the squadron leader walk up behind him.
"Family?" the RAF pilot asked.
"Girl, sir. The girl," Rafe said, smiling at him like a love struck fool.
The squadron leader thought for a moment before telling Rafe the thoughts running through his head.
"A lot of people frown on the yanks for not being in this war yet. I'd just like to say, if there are many more back home like you, God help anyone who goes to war with America," he commented before taking a small drink of his beer, and patting Rafe's shoulder as he left.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
A bell chimed on the deck of the USS West Virginia as the captain and crew presented themselves to the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
"Atten-hut! Attention on deck! Admiral Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, on deck," called out the first mate.
Admiral Kimmel and Captain Mervyn Bennion of the USS West Virginia walked the deck between two lines of crew.
"Sharp presentation, Captain," Admiral Kimmel complimented.
"Thank you, Admiral Kimmel," Captain Bennion said with pride.
"For 4 months now, Washington's been blowing pink smoke about the threat from Japan. Could make us lose our fighting edge. I'm determined not to let that happen," Adm. Kimmel said to the Captain before they heard two pairs of feet quickly approaching behind them. It was Kimmel's Aide and the ship's strategic analyst.
"With your permission, Captain," said Kimmel's Aide, saluting his superior, "Admiral, urgent, from Washington,"
Admiral Kimmel was handed a telegraph, which he quickly scanned with a frown that only grew to frustration as he finished. He looked up at Captain Bennion in exasperation.
"I'm supposed to keep this fleet battle-ready to take on the Japanese. Cover half the damn globe. Now they want me to transfer another 12 destroyers to the Atlantic. Don't they know what we're facing out here?!"
"They feel Europe is the greater danger, Admiral," explained the analyst.
"I'm assuming these risk assessments include Hawaii?" asked the Admiral, knowing that they didn't really. Pearl Harbor was chosen for a reason, but there were always ways around the most air tight of plans.
"Well, Pearl Harbor is too shallow for an aerial torpedo attack. We're surrounded by sub nets. All we need to worry about here is sabotage," explained the analyst. "So we've bunched our planes together to make them easier to protect. Distance is our ally, Admiral."
"You analysts got it all figured out, don't you? The smart enemy, hits you exactly where you think you're safe," Admiral Kimmel said, heeding the experience of his years.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
In Japan, surrounding a shallow pool with mock battleships and destroyers in position, schemed Japans most brilliant military minds of the time, including Admiral Yamamoto and Commander Genda. The man they had paid to survey the Harbor produced photographs and rough plans he had made while scouting.
"From a Hawaiian sightseeing plane, I was able to photograph battleship row and the many airbases."
"Look at the ships- all grouped, perfect targets," Commander Genda pointed out, before he showed the Admiral to the torpedoes they were outfitting for the attack.
"We have fixed our torpedoes to allow for Pearl Harbor," he said as three men attached wooden fins to a torpedo.
"Wooden fins- this makes the torpedoes able to travel through the shallow harbor." Commander Genda showed the trajectory the modified torpedoes would take in the water on a blackboard. The Admiral nodded, impressed with the progress of the plan of attack.
"When Pearl Harbor ia still asleep in the morning mist, we will attack with full force," he said.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
The air raid alarm was blaring incoming Luftwaffe as pilots scrambled to their planes.
"I fixed the hydraulics and electrical system, sir, but the oil hoses still need attention," Ian hurriedly told Rafe in his thick Scottish accent.
"Just crank it, Ian!" Rafe said impatiently as he climbed into the cockpit of his crate.
"God speed to you, sir," Ian said in a prayer that just one pilot would make it back from this sudden suicide mission.
They managed to get into the air readily enough but it wasn't long before they spotted the Zero's the Luftwaffe were flying.
"Red section, take the bombers. Blue section, look out for the fighters," ordered the squadron leader.
Rafe spotted the thin cloud of Zero's flying towards them at their 12 o'clock.
"Bombers, dead ahead. Let's drop in and give 'em a reception," he said. His accent coming out thicker as the adrenaline began pumping through his veins in preparation for the coming dogfight. The RAF began to split into their formation.
"Red 2, follow my lead, high side. We go right at the lead bomber," Rafe instructed the young man. Poor kid had only been with them for a week at most.
"Following you, Red 1," he replied. They came in from above and below, hammering down on their gun fire in an attempt to down the lead bomber. The monster was huge, and Rafe knew he had to bring it and it's payload down before it had a chance to reach the mainland.
"Good hit, good hit!" he encouraged the kid as Red 2. This was a fight strictly about ingenuity and skill. Rafe's P-40, while not able to outrun, the German Zero, under his hands, was doing a fine job of outmaneuvering the German pilot. But it was still keeping pace on his tail.
"Red 1, coming around, reset for the kill," Rafe ordered into his headset. Somehow, in the process of attempting to lose the Zero on his tail, he had a bomber right in his sights.
"I have the middle bomber. Hammer down!" he said as he strafed the bomber with gunfire. He and the kid managed to get enough hits in to blow the cockpit sky high.
"We got him. Nice shot, Red 2. I got 2 M.E.s dead ahead," Rafe informed the squadron as he flew after them.
"I'm on him. I'm on his tail," he got the fallback plane in his sights. "Hammer down!" he said as he sprayed the M.E. taking out the left wing. "I got one of them!"
In his concentration and zeal to shoot down the other planes, Rafe didn't notice that he had flown so far from his squadron. But that didn't matter as he shot at the second plane, bringing it down to the deck as he pulled up to gain altitude.
"I got another one," Rafe shouted.
"Red 1, you've got fighters all over your tail!" screamed Red 2 as Rafe began taking heavy fire.
"I'm under fire! I'm taking fire!" Rafe yelled as he swiveled his head in attempt to locate the German ass hat that was shooting at him.
"Red 1, get out of there. Pull up! Pull up!" the squadron leader advised. Rafe could feel that he was pushing his plane beyond it's limits. A fact that became abundantly clear when an oil hose broke in the panel at his knees.
"I got an oil leak! AH!" he screamed as the oil caught fire. "Can't see a damn thing!" He tried to simultaneously put out the fire and wipe the oil from the windows. He had to get out of there. But when he tried the latch, it stayed put.
"I can't bail! My canopy's stuck! I can't bail out!" Rafe was really starting to panic now, as he tried to maintain control of the plane, fight a fire, plug an oil lead, and he didn't have the ability to bail out. In an attempt to relieve some of the pressure in the cockpit, he shot the windows to weaken them and punched them out. But the hole wasn't much bigger than his fist, let alone a full grown man.
"He's on my tail, Red 2," Rafe said, coming under fire again. The German got a lucky shot off and blew the engine.
"I'm hit! I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday!" he yelled as his plane began to spin out of control, towards the water.
"Oh, my God," he said in terror as he watched the altimeter whir as he lost height. He looked at the crane he had made. The partner of Evelyn's, and braced himself as he hit the frigid water.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
It was Sunday, and Bella and all of the other nurses were leaving church.
"I'm no good at church," Betty pouted.
"What do you mean, sweetie?" asked Sandra.
"Well, whenever I'm up there getting my slate wiped clean, I can't help thinking how I'm going to dirty it up again," Betty leered and giggled as the other girls joined her.
"This from one of our resident virgins," Barbara mused. Bella snorted. With the way she and Danny have been going at it lately, Bella was no longer a virgin even in the loosest of terms. Betty knew, of course, she was the first Bella told, being her best friend and all, but none of the others knew. Betty elbowed her in the ribs as she got a suspicious look from Sandra. Bella shook her head, but didn't answer her.
"I've got to inventory supplies," Evelyn said to the others as she began to walk away.
"Kill me now, could you be anymore boring?" asked Martha.
"Don't bother," Betty tells her. "Sunday, she writes Rafe, 10 pages instead of the usual 5."
Barbara sighed. "Gosh, I wish I was in love." They heard a honk and a car with Anthony driving and Red in the passenger seat pulled up.
"Hey, sweetheart," Anthony said in Sandra's direction. Sandra gave him a look of disdain and gave him a single short wave in answer. "She hates me."
"Good to see you, Red," Betty smiled as she stepped up to the car.
"Sure good to see you too, Betty. What are you doing? You wanna go for a ride?" he said excitedly. Betty nodded happily.
"Come on," Red said as he climbed over the seats into the back, helping Betty in as well.
"Yeah, I'll be your chauffeur," pouted Anthony. The girls laughed as the car took off.
~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
The men on the deck were rowdy as the fight wore on. They were all encouraging the match between Petty Officer Dorie Miller and a mechanic simply known as Joe. Danny, Gooz, and Billy managed to find decent spots underneath the turret of a wicked looking cannon.
"Alright, Walker, who you got? Fight's almost over," Gooz asked.
"I'll take the cook," Danny said after analyzing the fight.
"Why? You don't like money?" Gooz asked incredulously. They watched the match, seeing Joe back Miller into the corner of the ring before bobbing and weaving his way out.
"I'll put 5 on it," Danny said, now sure of his bet.
"Done. Against a mechanic? That guy craps rivets."
They could hear Petty Officer Miller taunting his opponent.
"How's it feel crawling up from that engine room? Sunlight bothering you?" he asked before he received a hammer fist to the left side of his jaw. He recovered nicely though.
"Ow," he managed before an uppercut met his chin.
"Man, he's getting all busted up in there!" one of his friends yelled. The bell rang signaling the end of the round as each fighter went to their corners to rally themselves.
"Come here, we gotta talk," demanded Miller's friend and self appointed coach. "Get down here. He can't hurt us." Water was poured over Miller's head in an effort to cool him off.
Miller looked at Joe in the other corner before replying to his friend. "He can hurt us. He cut us. We bleedin'!"
"Bleedin'?" Miller's friend touched the cut above his eye before tapping the finger to his tongue. "That's a scratch! You see this here," he said holding up a wad of paper bills. "This here's the hard earned green backs of every dish-washin', pot-scrubbin' chop on this here fleet. Now if we don't win, then Teeny here's gonna have to find himself another battleship! And there's no way I'm going back to the Arizona empty-handed!" Teeny shouted.
"Don't worry about the money. I'll send that smug, engine-fixin' snipe, back below decks where he belong." Miller said, tapping his gloves together as the bell signaled the next round.
"There you go! He slapped your mama, remember! Be a son-of-a-bitch!" Teeny encouraged him. It seemed from that point on, Petty Officer Miller was dancing as he dodged punches, getting his own licks in in between Joe's defenses, constantly nailing him in the face, then the midsection to weaken him. Danny from his spot could see the tide turning as well.
"Look at this!" Danny yelled as he was swept away in the excitement of the match. Miller got in a few more licks, before the ref called the match, but that didn't stop Joe from going down just as the bell rang. Danny turned to Gooz. "Oh! Where's my money?" he demanded the surfing pilot.
Gooz shook his head. "Nah. Fight's rigged."
"We're rich! Mwa!" Teeny yelled, kissing the wad of bills in his hand.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
At the dispensary, Petty Officer Miller was getting patched up by Evelyn. That scratch Teeny told Miller he had actually needed stitches.
"How'd you get this?" Evelyn asked.
"Boxing," Miller simply said.
"Did you win?" asked Bella in genuine curiosity. Miller gave a soft chuckle and smiled a small smile.
"Yes, ma'am."
"What'd you get for winning?" asked Evelyn.
"Respect," Miller said, as Evelyn finished off his stitches. Bella could understand the underlying bitterness in his tone. It was 1941. The Civil Rights Movement began in '54, and didn't actually make any decent headway until '68. Poor Petty Officer Miller was 27 years too young to get there, but that wasn't stopping him from fighting with everything at his disposal.
"So why do you have to fight with your fists to get respect?" Evelyn asked as she walked Petty Officer Miller out of the dispensary. Bella hung back. This was a lesson Evelyn needed to learn.
"I left my mama in Texas and joined the Navy to see the world. Become a man. They made me a cook. Not even that, I uh- I clean up after other sailors eat. 2 years, and they never even let me fire a weapon," mused Miller.
"Well, let's hope you never have to," Evelyn said. Bella had stopped listening at this point. At this moment, she clutched the table she was working at as the one car no loved one of a soldier wanted to see pulled up to the dispensary. Her breathing stopped, hoping it was a stranger. A hope that was in vain as she saw Danny exit the car.
Bella rushed outside, as Evelyn was telling Miller to take care of himself. The smile on Evelyn's face slowly melting off as she saw Danny in full dress uniform. His eyes red and swollen from the crying he has obviously done. Bella shook her head.
"No. No, Danny. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is," Bella said in a heartbroken voice. The three meet on the sidewalk in front of the building. Danny looking first to Bella, tears starting to fall from his already raw eyes. He then looked to Evelyn, who had a stunned, disbelieving look on her face. Seeing her begin to shut down, Danny pulled Evelyn to him, in hopes of gaining a response. He got one, in the form of heart wrenching tears.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
Bella had left Danny to care for Evelyn. Though she wanted nothing more than a strong hug from the man, she knew Evelyn needed him more at the moment. Danny and Evelyn were currently sat beside a fountain, talking about Rafe, of course.
"You know he taught me how to fly?" Danny asked. "I always knew that no matter what trouble I got into, I'd never be in it alone. He'd be there with me. He was always pushing me to be better and faster."
"He told me you were a great flier," Evelyn said with tears running nonstop. "It was the same night he told me, he'd volunteered to go to England.
Danny huffed. "Yeah, I know about him volunteering. I was madder than the Hatter with broken china. It was Bella who got me to see sense." Danny then winced. He didn't want to remind Evelyn of his love when she had just lost hers.
"He was always trying to protect me. But you know what? I look at myself in the mirror in this uniform, and I still don't know who I am." Danny confessed. He hadn't even told Bella about these insecurities. "I look like a hero, but I don't feel like it. Rafe, he always looked the part, didn't he?"
"He couldn't wait to be one," Evelyn said, before she once again began sobbing into Danny's shoulder.
~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~
Everyone gathered at the Hula-La for Rafe's memorial. There was a small picture of him on a shelf, with a tag above it that read Killed In Action. Danny poured a shot in front of the photo before holding his own up.
"To Rafe McCawley. The best pilot, and best friend I ever knew. Or ever will know," Danny said as he did his best to hold back tears. He wasn't the only one. She and Betty had even fallen asleep together the previous night, having passed out while sobbing on the other's shoulder.
"To Rafe," Danny said once more, and downed his shot with a grimace. Danny never had been much of a drinker, not wanting to turn out like his father. Bella and everyone down their own shots, remembering a fallen pilot, hero, friend, and brother.
