For the first time in her young life Ann Walker was suffering from insomnia.

She couldn't sleep because every time she closed her eyes she saw Danny. She saw him as she remembered him the day he took her flying and it was the first time he ever touched her.

It had been three weeks since the McCawley's were informed of Danny's situation and he was still missing. Word spread quickly around the base about his being shot down and scuttlebutt began to circulate that the North Vietnamese probably had him because he hadn't been located. Ann knew the possibility was very real and knew that his family was keenly aware of it too.

The one place that always helped to soothe her troubled mind was the beach and Ann found herself there one late afternoon with a book, in a vain attempt to read. She thought that if she could feel the breeze on her face and hear the sound of the incoming tide it would ease her worry about Danny. It didn't.

She wasn't aware that Evelyn was there until she heard her sigh. "I don't know what it is about Dan's family that they have such a bad habit of repeating history. It's eerie how his dad was shot down in two different wars and now he gets shot down in a third."

Ann shaded her eyes against the afternoon sun to see her. "It was the one thing that Mrs. McCawley worried about most when Danny graduated from the Academy. The war in Vietnam was starting to heat up and she knew that it was only a matter of time before his squadron got called up."

Evelyn nodded. "It's one thing to log in a lot of flight hours. It's another thing to get sent out on training missions, but it's completely something else to actually go into combat."

"But if anyone was ready, it was Danny. He took his training so seriously that his squadron commander grounded him for three days before their first training mission because he was spending too much time in the air. He was afraid that Danny would get so tired that he would crash." Ann sighed and moved over on the blanket and offered Evelyn a spot, which she took.

"So how are you doing?" Evelyn touched her arm after she sat down. "You don't look like you've been getting too much sleep."

"I'm doing the best I can, I guess. I would much rather be curled up in bed with the blankets pulled over my head but I have too much to do before I start at the University in September. I keep hoping that this is a horrible nightmare and I'll wake up."

"I wish I could tell you that Dan is fine and he's coming home, but I don't have my crystal ball with me." Her smile was gentle. "But what I can tell you is that he was in the top of his class at the Academy and he didn't get there without a lot of hard work."

"I've never worried about his ability as a pilot because I know from first hand experience how skilled he is. What does worry me is how he's handling himself on the ground. Flying is second nature to him, but if he's going to stay out of enemy hands he's going to have to rely on those skills he learned from his survival training."

"How are his parents holding up?" She asked.

"About as well as could be expected. Dad's had to talk Major McCawley more than once out of climbing into a jet and going after him. And Mrs. McCawley has been talking to Mama and Mrs. Dearborn a lot. They went through this with her before and I know Mama has the same feeling you do about repeating history."

"Hello Ladies." Ann looked up to see Hank standing in front of them. He was dressed for a run and wore his usual grin but she could see that it didn't reach his eyes. He returned from Okinawa two days earlier with his squadron and admitted to Ann that running was his way of dealing with his frustration with the situation. "You certainly picked a fine afternoon to be out here."

"And you picked a fine afternoon for a run Henry." Evelyn smiled back as she stood up and pulled Ann up with her. "I was just trying to cheer her up."

His look turned serious. "I'm sorry about all of this."

"I know you are, but it's not your fault. Has there been any word?"

Hank shook his head. "I'm sorry we haven't heard anything, but that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"I know, but it's not good either." Ann frowned.

Evelyn put her hands on her hips and sighed. "All right you two, this gloomy talk isn't going to help anything. I know how worried the both of you are because I am too, but there isn't anything we can do at the moment. We'll find out soon enough what's happened to Dan and we'll cope."

"Spoken like an optimist." Hank smiled as he put an arm around Ann's shoulders. "And that's what we need here Annie, is optimism."

"Henry, you really aren't going to start calling her that are you?" Evelyn asked, her hands still on her hips. "It's bad enough when Dan does it, but at least he's trying not to."

"It's all right Evelyn, I don't mind." Ann smiled. "Besides, you're the only one that calls Hank, Henry."

"You know Evelyn; she does have a point." He laughed. "Even when Dan and I were at the Academy, you were the only one who called me Henry."

If Ann didn't know better, she could swear that Evelyn's face started to flush. Was it embarrassment or the fact that Hank was teasing her? "I call you Henry because Hank is a boy's name and it's why I don't call Dan, Danny for the same reason."

"But Ann calls him Danny." He countered and it seemed as though he was enjoying their banter.

"That's because she grew up with him and it's a little different." She answered and Evelyn too, seemed to warm to the exchange. It didn't matter what she said to Ann about not getting involved with a guy in the service because if they began to spend more time together she might end up in that very situation.

She looked up at Hank and then over at Evelyn. "You aren't really going to have an argument about this are you?"

"It's not an argument Ann." Evelyn told her. "We are merely discussing the merits of referring to a man by a man's name, not a boy's."

"You don't think that Hank is manly enough?" Hank's voice was husky and Ann knew that he was now deliberately trying to get a rise out of her.

What it did do was make her cheeks flame red and to Ann's surprise the usually unflappable Evelyn walked away from them and headed up the beach. "You're just as terrible as you always were." She tossed over her shoulder as she walked away.

"Henry Mason Metcalf, you go talk to her this minute!" Ann chastised him as she shrugged his arm off of her shoulder. "You were deliberately being mean and I'm surprised at you."

"I wasn't trying to be mean." He tried to explain and she could see the surprise on his face at Evelyn's reaction. "I was only teasing her."

"Don't tell me; tell her before she gets too far away." She frowned as she gave him a shove. "Go apologize or I won't be talking to you either."

"I'll go talk to her." He looked at Ann and sighed because he probably knew that she was right.

She watched as Hank jogged up the beach after Evelyn and heard him call her name. She ignored him and kept walking until he caught up to her and stopped her as he took her by the elbow. Ann saw her pull her elbow out of his grasp and continue to walk. He stopped her again by taking her by both of her elbows and leaning close to her. She couldn't hear what he was saying of course, but he looked so earnest in his conversation. Evelyn wasn't looking at him so Ann couldn't see what her reaction was to his apology.

After a few moments Ann saw Evelyn nod her head and Hank let her go. He stood and watched as she walked the rest of the way up the beach and reached the pavement. He seemed to stand there a long time, long after she disappeared and Ann wondered what he was thinking as he turned around and walked back to wear she was standing.

"Is she all right?" Ann was concerned because in the short time that she'd known Evelyn, she'd never seen her so flustered.

"I embarrassed her." Hank told Ann.

"You don't need to be an Air Force Academy graduate to figure that out Hank." She answered gently.

He frowned. "She's the most self-assured girl I've ever met. She's always known what she's wanted and not wanted and that's why I thought that she and Dan would have made a good match at the time."

"Well, you were a little hostile to her when she first got here, or have you forgotten?"

"Ann that was months ago. Besides, I apologized to her for that." He seemed a little defensive. "One of the reasons that I've always liked Evelyn is that she can take my ribbing. I don't know why she couldn't this time."

It occurred to Ann that what Hank thought was teasing, maybe Evelyn saw it as more and she tucked her arm through his as they began to walk. "Do you mind if I make an observation about what just happened?"

"Shoot."

"If I didn't know the two of you and saw you while you were talking just now, I would have thought that you were flirting with each other." She stated and that brought Hank to a dead stop.

He looked absolutely floored by her comment and she saw his face flush as Evelyn's had. "Flirting? Us?"

"I never thought about it until now but I've seen the way you are with each other and sometimes it has felt that way, though I knew that neither one of you was aware of it."

She could see that he was trying to absorb the idea and wasn't sure how he liked it. "You said that if you didn't know us, but you do. Did it sound to you like we were flirting?"

"To be honest, it did. And it also sounded to me as though you both enjoyed it." Ann added.

"Enjoyed what? We've always done that; it just never seemed to bother her before."

She tucked her arm through his again and looked up at him. "Maybe because it never did until now."

"What are you trying to tell me Ann?" He sighed as they began to walk again.

"If that look on your face is any indication, it's not something that hasn't crossed your mind already." She smiled and put her head on his shoulder for a moment. "Hank, I think you know that one of the reasons things between you and Sarah didn't work was that there was another girl you were thinking about."

"Evelyn." He stated with a frown.

"Evelyn." She confirmed. "Whether you know it or not, you always have a smile on your face when you see her and invariably say something that will get her attention. With Sarah, you were always polite and never said the wrong thing. Now that could mean that you cared so much about her that you didn't want Sarah to have a bad impression of you, but with Evelyn it's never seemed to matter."

"You're saying that I've always been myself with Evelyn and wasn't with Sarah." His frown deepened.

"From where I'm standing, I'd say yes. And it seems to me that you'd known Sarah long enough that you should have felt comfortable in being yourself."

"It's like Deja Vu all over again." He sighed.

Ann didn't understand what he meant. "Excuse me?"

"Yogi Berra said it." He told her in way of explanation.

"Yogi Berra?"

"Catcher for the Yankees back in the 40's, manager of the Mets?" He seemed frustrated that she didn't know who he was talking about and shook his head. "Never mind. What I'm trying to say is that it just occurred to me that this is the same sort of situation that you and Dan were in not long ago."

She smiled. "Not exactly. The difference is Danny has never been anything but himself with me and it's gotten him in a little hot water with his parents because of it. Your being yourself with Evelyn has finally gotten you in hot water with her."

"Why?"

"Because I think it's starting to matter to her." And she waited for Hank to see if he would catch on to her thinking. "Just step lightly with her. I never noticed it before today but I think that she's starting to see you differently and she isn't taking your teasing the way she used to."

"Evelyn?" He didn't seem to want to believe it.

"Yes, Evelyn. And I also think that lately you've deliberately been trying to get a reaction out of her." Ann laughed and then turned serious. "When I saw you apologizing to her just now, you were holding her so close that I thought you were going to kiss her."

His face flushed and Ann got the feeling that it was something that had crossed his mind.

"Danny told me that you had dinner with her before you flew out. Is that true?"

The flush crept up to his ears. "It isn't what you think. I was helping her reorganize her folders."

"How's that?" Ann asked in confusion.

Hank sighed. "The afternoon Dan and I saw her we'd been given our new orders and we were outside talking and I ran into Evelyn. She was supposed to be making a presentation to Commander Allen and had an armful of folders."

"And those folders were emptied of their contents?" Ann tried not to smile with the picture of Danny, Hank and Evelyn trying to retrieve the loose papers.

He shook his head. "Not quite. When we got the Black Cat for dinner the damage wasn't as bad as she thought it was, so it didn't take long for me to help her to reorganize everything."

"Did you take the opportunity to talk to her, to get to know her better?" She wanted to know.

"I tried, but you know it doesn't matter."

"Then it seems to me that you didn't try hard enough. If you could talk her into a casual dinner at a diner, you can talk her into something more like a date." She smiled.

"Annie, you don't know Evelyn as well as I do. She's the kind of girl that says what she means and means what she says."

Ann wouldn't give up. "I'm sure that's true. All's I'm saying is that you have to try and persuade her to change her way of thinking so that she gives you a chance."

Hank suddenly grinned. "You're matchmaking Ann, just like Dan."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Because I want you to be happy, like he does. And if you think Evelyn is the girl who can do that, then I'll do what I can to help until Danny comes home."

"So Evelyn and I will have the both of you working on us."

Ann laughed. "Pretty much. You seem to forget that Danny and I had you and Sarah working on us and I think it's only fair to return the favor with you and Evelyn."

"There is no me and Evelyn." He insisted.

"Not yet, but I have no doubt that once you put your mind to it there will be." She finished.

"You really like her don't you?" Hank seemed a little surprised.

"If it isn't Sarah that you're meant to be with, why not Evelyn?" Ann reasoned with him. "She puts a sparkle in your eye whenever she's around, whether you realize it or not and you have the ability to rattle her, which no one else on this base can do. If you would both give each other a chance you might just find what it is that you've been looking for."

"Like you and Dan did."

"Something like that. Danny and I have known each other for most of our lives and have been able to build on that foundation. You and Evelyn have known each other long enough now that you have something to build on and I think you should."

Hank grinned again. "You really do sound a lot like Dan."

"Maybe it's because we both make sense and you don't want to admit it."

"Maybe." And he looked at his watch. "I hate to leave you alone, but I need to get going. We're off rotation for a couple of weeks but I still need to get my flight hours in."

"Get going then, I'll be all right." She reassured him.

"Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything." His look was serious. "I mean anything."

"I know. And if you need to talk, don't hesitate to call me either."

Hank nodded. "He's going to be fine."

"I hope you're right." She sighed just as Hank put his arms around her and held her for a moment. "They'll find him Ann, even if his own father has to go after him."

"He'd do it too."

Hank let go of her and gave her a gentle smile. "I know he would and given the chance, I'd go with him."

"That's because he's your best friend." Ann said unnecessarily.

He nodded. "He is and I don't have any intention of losing that friend any time soon."

"We've just begun something that's pretty special and I have no intention of losing him either."

Hank put an arm around her shoulders. "Good girl. That's what Danny needs, to know that he's got a lot of people that care about him and want him home safe and sound."

"That's all we can ask for isn't it?" She asked him as he steered her up the beach toward home.