Evelyn stepped back and gave Rafe a quick hug, there was no way she was going to let the chance to feel his skin on hers go to waste.
"You look more beautiful then I remembered." Danny stated once Evelyn had released Rafe and looked back to him.
"I look like a cow but we'll talk about that later." She bubbled patting her stomach. "We had better head over to the hospital. Especially you Danny I hear you 're pretty banged up."
"You're lucky young man that bullet just missed you're heart." The chief of medicine at the base told Danny as he finished restitching the bullet wound. "Evelyn will you come dress this wound so I can check out this over fellows hand.
"Coming Doctor." She acknowledged.
Danny sat on an exam table his tee shirt rolled in a ball on his lap. Evelyn knew every inch of his chest without looking. Every ripple was permanently embedded in her brain; from that brief time, she studied them with extreme care. From the time, they made love. Each muscle was there all in their recognizable pattern on his strong body.
"Evelyn I love you." Danny said softly as Evelyn smeared ointment on him and covered it with gauze.
"I love you too Danny." She said without looking up. "How could he ask me to say that in front of Rafe?" She thought to herself. Just saying it aloud made her shiver despite the warmth of the Hawaiian sun.
"When will I be able to fly again doc?" Rafe asked as the man in white bent and pulled on every finger on Rafe's left hand.
"In a week or two son. Take some time off and enjoy the island. There are some very lovely ladies here. And there goes one now." Doctor Parker pointed at a tall girl in a nurse uniform that was rapidly running toward the door.
"Sorry I don't have time to talk sir. Bye Evelyn I'll see you at home."
"Wait what's so important that you have to rush off to?" Evelyn called after her.
"Nothing my shifts over and I'm to bored to stand still." And with that, she was gone.
"I'm not really look for a girl right now anyway." Rafe answered after the interruption. He looked longingly at Evelyn his heart dying more and more each passing minute. Danny noticed but said nothing.
"Don't worry about it Walker she loves you she told you that." Danny wordlessly scolded himself.
"I saw a casket on the plane who's was it." Evelyn asked no one in particular.
"Anthony's." Gooze voice called from the doorway as he walked in to check on his friends.
"Anthony's dead? I've got to tell Sandra she's going to be upset." Evelyn made herself look busy by pretending to store supplies.
"What will she care she was never anything but mean to him anyway." Danny observed.
"She'll still be upset it's not every day, a good looking guy like that follows you around completely in love with you."
"It is for you both these fellers here love you." Gooze was anything but bright.
From the looks everyone was giving him he knew it was a touchy subject and he better change it.
"Red went to visit Betty's grave, what are you guys doin' tonight?"
"I think I'm spendin' the night with the most beautiful girl in the world." Danny replied glancing at the dark haired girl with her back toward him.
"I done told you Danny ladies cloud the mind. How's about you Rafe, you up for some R and R?"
"Yeah as long as we ain't goin' to the Hula Hut. Don't think I'm allowed back there after what happened last time."
"We can go to the Sand Bar."
"Come on Gooze let's leave these too alone man."
Alone with Evelyn, that's all Danny wanted to be. Not a great war hero, he recipient of welcoming cheer. All he wanted was to spend time with the women he loved. They'd be together and raise their baby. Their baby, when was she going to tell him about the baby? He pushed the thought to the very back of his mind that day was about them being together, together and in love. And nothing could ruin that, not Gooze's comment, Danny's injury, Evelyn's secret not even all the destruction all around them. If they were together all was right with the world at least from Danny's point of view. She was all the mattered. If it wasn't for her he'd be lying lifeless on a rice patty. God let him be with her and she gave him the strength and the reason to go on. Each difficult breath he took there on the Chinese soil was for her.
They walked all over Pearl that day, not really talking much. That was until they passed the parachute hanger. Danny stopped abruptly. A little to abruptly in fact , Evelyn was holding his hand and was snapped back with the resistance of his still body.
"Next time warn me before you put on the brakes." She looked deeply into his intense brown eyes. She saw only blankness which wasn't common for Danny except when he was deep in thought and from the look on his face his must have been drowning in it.
"That was the both the best and worst night of my life." He finally murmured still not tearing his eyes from the pieces of white cloth suspended from the ceiling. " It was the day you really became mine and the day I betrayed the best friend I ever had."
"Danny don't worry about that, we've got other things to worry about." Evelyn subconsciously draw her hand to her abdomen and clenched her eyelids tightly. "Danny I'm pregnant."
"I know." A smile spreading over his gorgeous face and his sparkled the way they had on their first night together." Evelyn I can't wait to be a father, for us to start our lives together. Forever isn't long enough for me to be with you."
Evelyn wished Danny didn't mean that. She was so confused, she knew she loved Danny who wouldn't he was smart and kind and a great listener. But she didn't love him the way she should. The way a wife loves a husband passionately and wholey. No those feelings were saved only for Rafe. The best friend of the father of her child. She was torn. Torn between what was right and what was right for her.
