Chapter 3
Brave Enough

At that same moment, Colonel Doolittle spoke: "Anyone brave enough to accept this, step forward."

The brave men, soldiers, pilots, stepped forward in perfect unity.

That night, everyone celebrated. No one knew why, it just seemed right. They were about to put their lives in the the hands of their leaders, no one knew what would come of it, but they knew in the end the American flag of red, white, and blue would be there to catch them if they fell, and would shelter them, dead or alive.

Rafe lay in his bunk, gazing at the ceiling. He had no desire to celebrate. All his friends knew why, even if they didn't say it aloud. He missed Danny. Danny had always been there, ready for Rafe to watch over him, and Rafe had gotten used to that. He was used to having someone to watch over, like a guardian angel or a big brother. Of course, he was in charge of his crew, but that wasn't the same. After getting into a pattern like Rafe had, sitting in the clouds with his guns armed and ready, it was hard to realize that he knew only his crew, but none of them as well as he knew Danny.

Just then, as Red, Goose, and Anthony were laughing, joking, and enjoying the comforting radio music, a knock came to the door, of course there was so much noise, the only person who noticed was Rafe. He reluctantly walked to the door, and let in a scrawny pilot just recruited.

The pilot cleared his throat, "Hi, I'm Captain Devon Berenger." His voice was deep, yet forced.

"Rafe McCawley." There was an awkward silence, not in the room, just between the two men now facing each other. "Your taking Danny's place, I presume?" Rafe asked.

"If by Danny you mean Captain Walker, then yes. I've never met him, all I know is he backed out of the mission four days ago."

"He left honorably." Rafe snapped.

Devon Berenger presumed this man standing before him to be like an very sensitive bomb. A bomb that would explode at the touch, however, he was very tall and, despite the sorrow in his eyes, very good-looking.

Another pilot, that had heard Rafe's comment, warned, "Rafe, buddy, come on. He isn't against Danny."

"And you are?" Captain Berenger asked.

"Lieutenant R-r-r-red Winkle, and this is Lieutenant G-g-g-ooz, and these guys are P-p-p-privates Anthony Fusco, John CardIone, and N-n-n-noah McArthur." He replied, gesturing to other handsome pilots.

"I guess I'm your co-pilot." The man called, 'Gooz' said.

"And Anthony and I are on your crew." Noah told him.

"Wow," Berenger said, more to himself than to others. "I've never had a crew before."

Rafe looked over the man once again. He looked very small, but definitely not timid. His countenance was very strong. It seemed to Rafe that he had had to crawl his way to the top, but after talking a little more to him, he found very familiar eyes. They were much like Danny's eyes when he broke a rule, eyes that were scared of someone very close. Of course he did not let fear be discovered. Only if you had seen your closest friend go through abuse could you decipher it in others.

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