The afternoon sun beat down on Alex as she walked up the steps of her house that afternoon, her stomach doing nervous flips. Danny was out saying goodbye to his squad before he left the next day, so she'd decided to take the time to clear things up with Rafe. It was important to her that there was nothing standing between them when he left, but even more important was his friendship with Danny.
She knew that they would need each other if both of them were going to make it home alive.
Red had told Alex that he'd seen Rafe heading to the house with Evelyn, and he'd been right; they were sitting together on the couch, heads close together in quiet conversation, when she opened the door and stepped inside. Both looked up when she entered.
"Hi, Alex," Evelyn greeted softly.
"Is something wrong?" Rafe asked, noticing the almost sick look on her face.
Alex shook her head. "No, I just came here to… Evelyn, can I talk to Rafe alone for a while?"
"Of course," Evelyn assured her friend. She leaned over to kiss Rafe's cheek, then got up and walked out after sending Alex an encouraging look.
Rafe fidgeted, suddenly as uncomfortable as her. The last time they'd had a real conversation was the day before the bombing, and they'd argued. "You doing okay?" he asked, a little awkwardly.
Alex bit her lip, wondering how such a simple question had become so hard to answer. She walked over to the couch and sat down beside him, and he sighed and tugged her into a hug. She clung to him for a second, waiting until she'd collected herself before pulling away. "I've been better. You?"
He smiled, but his eyes were sad. "Same."
"Can we talk about Danny?"
Rafe leaned back and ran a hand over his face. "I guess we have to, don't we?"
"Yes," she answered honestly, because it wasn't something he could ignore and hope would just go away.
"I need to ask a couple questions, Alex."
She nodded. "Okay."
"Why?" he inquired. "Why Danny?"
"When you think about it, it makes perfect sense," she began thoughtfully. "Danny and I both love you, Rafe. When you were gone, we were both so worried, but I was the real wreck. He listened to me ramble on about you for hours and told me stories about you two during training and distracted me when I got too anxious. He kept me from falling apart. And during that, we got closer."
Rafe cut in before she got into any of the details. "Do you love him?"
Alex smiled softly. "Yes. I've never been in love with anyone before. I tried, once, but it didn't work out."
"What was wrong with him?"
She laughed because it was so Rafe to automatically assume that it was the guy's fault. "On paper, nothing," she admitted. "Michael's handsome and kind, and he runs his father's shop in town. I liked him, but something was always missing." Honestly, she'd never gotten as much of a jolt from Michael's kisses as she got from simply seeing Danny smile, but she didn't say as much to Rafe. "With Danny, it's just… there."
"Does he know?"
"That I love him? I think so."
"Did you tell him?"
"Not straight-out," Alex confessed after a moment's thought. "But he must know, Rafe. I… I told him that I want to go back to Tennessee with him after this is all over. I hope you don't mind. I just can't imagine going back to Massachusetts after being with you and Danny again. I'd miss you both too much, and you're taking Evelyn…"
"You're not happy at home, are you?" Rafe asked suddenly.
Alex blinked at him, surprised. "What? Who told you that?" She wondered if Evelyn had let anything slip, or if Danny had said something about his suspicions—she knew he'd caught on to her feelings about her mother's home.
"No one," Rafe replied, "but I get this feeling whenever we talk about it. Is everything okay? Is mom okay?"
"Mom's fine."
"But…" he prodded.
"It's nothing, Rafe, I promise. Her husband just doesn't really like me."
Rafe scowled, frustrated by her vague answer. He'd never met his stepfather, and Alex never spoke of him. In fact, she'd written so little about him in her letters that sometimes Rafe forgot the man even existed. "What do you mean, he doesn't like you?"
His sister looked up at him with guarded eyes. "We're supposed to be talking about Danny," she reminded him, blatantly trying for a subject change.
"Answer me that one question and we'll go back to talking about you and Danny," Rafe promised. "But answer it honestly, Alex."
"He drinks, that's all," she answered reluctantly, trying to keep her voice light. "And when he does—"
"He hurts you?" Rafe demanded.
"No." She twisted her hands together and sighed; the lie didn't sit well with her. "Not a lot. It's nothing, okay?" she rushed on when she saw the anger cross his face. Already he was tensing up, his fists clenched in preparation to take on an opponent who was thousands of miles away. "He just yells a lot. He's only hit me a couple times, and he's never hurt mom—I've looked. It's not what you're thinking. This is nothing like Danny and his father, Rafe."
He ground his teeth against the helpless fury and tried not to think back to when they were kids. He'd seen Danny's old man do more than just hit him. He'd tried to break his son, and might have succeeded if Danny hadn't been so strong. The thought of anyone doing that to Alex made Rafe want to hit something. "Why the hell didn't you tell me? I would've gotten you out of there."
"I know you would have, but it's something I had to deal with myself. And before you ask, Danny doesn't know, and he doesn't need to."
He shook his head warily. "You should've told us."
"It's over now," she pointed out. "I don't live there anymore, and I don't intend to."
"If I ever meet that son of a bitch, I'll kill him."
"Then let's hope you two never have a reason to meet." Surprisingly, she really had put the past with her stepfather behind her. At the time she'd felt constantly scared of him, afraid that she would do something wrong and draw his animosity out, but knowing that she didn't have to return to it was like a balm over a persistent wound. She had much more important things to worry about in her life. "Now come on, back to Danny. Tell me what you think."
"Honestly, Alex, I still don't know."
"Do you remember the time when we were little and you and Danny were talking about how you wanted to become pilots when you grew up, and then one of you—I think it was him—asked me what I wanted to be?" Alex asked. She could see the memory of the conversation in his eyes. "Do you remember what I said?"
Rafe smiled as it came to him—it was simply so young. "Of course I do. We laughed at you for days. You said you wanted to be happy."
She smiled gently. "Well when I'm with Danny, that's exactly what I am."
He looked at his sister and saw that—despite the war and everything they'd seen fall apart around them—she did seem oddly peaceful. Not only that, but she wasn't the little girl he'd watched drive away in that old yellow station wagon. She was an adult, able to make her own decisions. And if she decided to be with Danny, well, who was he to stop her?
"You should tell him, you know."
Alex looked at her brother, obviously confused. "Tell him what?"
"That you love him," Rafe answered. "And while you're at it, tell him that I'll kill him if he ever hurts you."
"Tell him yourself," she shot back with a relieved smile. Strangely enough, if Rafe was threatening Danny then things were getting back to normal. If he really intended to go after him, he wouldn't stand around talking about it first. "I really don't want to ruin things between you. There's enough going on right now without best friends being at odds."
"We'll be fine," Rafe assured her, smiling a little. "Don't worry about it."
Alex leaned forward and hugged him tightly. "I love you, Rafe. You better do whatever this mission is and get back here to me and Evelyn, all right? Just come back here safe."
"I will. You and Evelyn take care of each other until we get back."
"We always do. You and Danny better do the same."
An unreadable look passed over Rafe's features, but he nodded his head and Alex was satisfied with that. She trusted her brother to keep his word. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," she told him as she backed out of the house. There was a smile on her face when she left, excited to find Danny. In fact, right then, she was just excited about the future.