It had been a compromise they'd reached, but none had been particularly happy about it.

Rafe and Evelyn had returned to Hawaii and moved into a house that was almost identical to the one they'd lived in before. The only difference was, this one was bigger to accommodate all the kids. The problem was Danny and Sarah McCawley had had to stay in Tennessee with their grandparents.

There hadn't been enough time to get them registered because by the time they got back to Hawaii, school had already started. Evelyn, however, registered them for the following year.

The compromise was that while Danny and Sarah were left in Shelby, they had brought Joseph with them. He was still too young to start school and as difficult as it was for Evelyn to leave her two oldest behind, she was not going to leave her baby.

Rafe and Danny were at Wheeler with Red, receiving instructions on the upcoming mission and Sandra had come over to the house. She and Evelyn sat on the back porch having a second cup of coffee while Mrs. Monahan looked after Ann, Shelby and Joey.

"It feels so strange being back here." Evelyn commented. "Rafe's at the base and I have a small child. Some things never change."

Sandra agreed. "Now all we need are Barbara and Martha."

"I talked to Barbara after we got back here and she couldn't believe it. She's a little jealous that I'm here and she's not." She said with a smile.

"Well, that's all the more reason to get everyone back here for more visits, you and Rafe are back."

"It'll be awhile before that can happen, I think. Our husbands are flying combat again and who knows how long this will take." Evelyn commented.

Sandra sighed. "Danny and I were lucky. We had the girls before all of this happened, so at least they've had a lot of time with him."

Evelyn took a sip of her coffee and nodded. "You were lucky. I just wonder how this is going to affect Joey, he's never really been separated from Rafe."

"As I recall, Danny didn't like it too much either."

"This is different though. As much as Rafe loves all three kids, there has always been something special between the two of them because I don't think he ever got over the miscarriage."

"What about you?" Sandra asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I do think about it every once in awhile and I wonder if the baby would have been a boy or a girl or looked like Rafe or me."

"Does it still hurt?" She asked hesitantly.

"Not like it did then. But I don't think the hurt will ever really go away. I know it won't for Rafe."

"He loves you, Ev."

She smiled. "I know. That's one thing I've never doubted or how much he loves the kids."

"Have you thought about having any more?"

Evelyn shook her head. "Three are enough. What about you and Danny? Have you thought about having another baby?"

Sandra flushed at the directness of her question. "We've talked about it but never really decided if we wanted more. He seems to be perfectly content with the girls and now that we're at war again I don't know if I want to have another. If something were to happen to him..." Her voice trailed off.

Evelyn reached over and took her hand. "I'm sorry Sandra, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I do understand what you're feeling."

"I know you do and you didn't put me on the spot."

They sat quietly finishing their coffee when Rafe called from the front of the house. "Evelyn, where the heck are you?"

"This is always the last place he looks." She smiled at Sandra before she called back to him. "We're out on the back porch."

Rafe and Danny came out to see the two girls sitting. "Some things never change." Rafe grinned at her.

"I was saying the same thing to Sandra about you." She smiled back at her husband.

Danny leaned over to kiss Sandra on the cheek before he sat down next to her. She looked at him curiously, "So how did it go?"

He looked at Rafe and then back to Sandra. "Well, we got our orders."

"And?"

He sighed. "We're gettin' a week's leave and then we're goin' to be gone for awhile."

"How long is awhile?"

Evelyn looked at Rafe. They'd already been through this and she knew that Danny could not tell Sandra what the mission was or how long they'd be gone, even if he knew. Rafe sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

"We don't really know honey. They never give us too much detail, just enough to get the job done."

"You mean in case you get shot down."

Danny could hear the panic in her voice and took her trembling hand in his. "We knew this day could come and now that it has, we have to face facts. I know you don't want to hear it, but I could get shot down and the less information we have the better it is."

"I thought that if we waited until the war was over before we got married, we wouldn't have to go through what Ev and Rafe did."

"I know honey, me too. But here we are."

Sandra looked at Rafe. "Promise me you'll look after him."

"Don't worry about that Sandra, we'll look after each other." He told her.

As Evelyn was getting ready for bed that night, Rafe went to check on Joey. He'd been quiet since supper and Rafe was a little worried, it wasn't like his youngest to be so subdued. He was nearly four and a half and Rafe wondered if he understood what he and Evelyn had been talking about. They had been discussing the upcoming mission and how long he might be away. It was something they had always done so he could answer any questions she might have and to try to ease her fears.

It worried him now that he might have frightened his son.

He knew that parents weren't supposed to have favorites and he and Evelyn had never shown favoritism toward any of their children. They were all special in their own way: Danny being their firstborn and Sarah being their only daughter. But Joey had come after Evelyn had miscarried, when they had made the decision to wait until the end of the war to have another. When that day had finally come, they had wasted no time in trying and their youngest had been born nine months later on their fourth anniversary. Rafe had always joked that she'd given him a hell of an anniversary gift. He looked like his father and older brother with his sandy brown hair and brown eyes, which made his mother happy.

But how would his youngest handle being separated from him? That worried Rafe, a lot.

When he opened the door to his son's room, the boy was asleep. He leaned against the doorjamb to watch him and he sighed. This wasn't how he had wanted to introduce him to Hawaii, going back to flying combat missions.

When Evelyn came out of the bathroom, Rafe still hadn't come back and she began to worry that something might be wrong with Joey. She headed down the hall and saw her husband standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest. She stood behind him for a moment before she put her arms around him. "Is everything all right?"

He took one of her hands in his and kissed it. "Everything is fine. I was just watchin' him sleep."

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine honey, just pre-mission jitters."

She laid her cheek against his back. "Rafe McCawley, you don't get pre-mission jitters."

"I didn't before I had a wife and three kids."

"You never told me that before, why now?"

"Because I have to leave in a week and I'm goin' to be leavin' you alone. And because our little guy there has never been through this."

"We'll be all right Rafe, try not to worry."

"That's what I'm supposed to tell you." He said as he pushed himself off the doorjamb and turned around to face her. "I love you Evelyn and those kids of ours mean the world to me too."

"I know. We'll need to call the kids tomorrow and let them know you'll be going away. In the meantime, why don't we dust off the McCawley tradition of a day at the beach. Joey never got the chance to have that."

"I like the way you think Evelyn McCawley and I think he'll like it too."

She reached around him and closed her son's bedroom door. She took Rafe's hand and smiled at him, "Come on Captain, it's been a long day for both of us."

"I can't argue with that." He gave her a weary grin before he took the hand he held and walked her back to the bedroom to turn in for the night.