"Danny your not gonna die. Listen to me you can't die because you're gonna be a father. You're going to be a father. I wasn't supposed to tell you. " Rafe cradles his friends weakened frame on his lap. Tears roll down his dingy cheeks.
Danny takes a deep breath and holds it allowing the news to sink in.
"A father me, Evelyn I left her, Oh god Rafe." The new reason to live was also bringing Danny closer to death. The more worked up he got the faster the blood flowed from his wounds. Suddenly he began to sputter and choke.
"Danny calm down, if you get all stressed her hearts going to pump the blood out quicker. Just breath."
Hours passed in what seemed like days. Each time Rafe went to check on Danny he noticed he was struggling more and more to breath. Yet he wouldn't give up. Not when he knew Evelyn was waiting for him. Waiting with his child inside her.
"Danny, you still with me?" Rafe called into the night when he noticed a particularly long pause in Danny's breathing. He was answered with an almost silent.
"Yes."
Moments later the men were aroused by a rustling in the bushes around them. They pulled the hammers back on their guns and prepared to ward off the Japanese patrol squadron. When Gozze shouted out
"Don't shoot it's the Chinese."
"You're going to be alright Danny, we're going home." Rafe informed his injured friend.
"Thank god I was startin' to think I was gonna spend the rest of my life here. All ten minutes of it." A weak voice replied.
A Chinese doctor patched Danny's chest up enough for the long trip home, with the stipulation he got it checked as soon as he hit Pearl.
The plane bumped across the runway and rolled to a stop. Col. Doolittle exited to a cheer fit for the hero he and his man were. Evelyn walked toward the plane, her heart pounding like a humming birds wings. Neither Rafe nor Danny had emerged from within the iron bird yet. And the there they were. Danny's left arm was draped over Rafe's shoulder for the balance to walk. Evelyn let out a sigh; they were home. Alive. The two most important men in her life.
"Danny." She broke into a faster walk to greet him. She pulled him to her and Danny winced.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
Danny only pulled her closer burying his face in her hair. Evelyn looked over at Rafe her heart breaking. She wanted to hold him, to tell him, he was the only man she loved but she couldn't. She couldn't lie to
him. No matter the fact that he was the first thing on her mind in the morning and the last thing she thought of when she shut her eyes at night he wasn't the only man she loved. She loved Danny as well sure her feelings were not as deep as those for Rafe but they were there for all the world to see. And as the mother of his child she would treasure him always.
