Unprepared

Disclaimers: Nothing is myne.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Evelyn thinks about love, friendship and war.

We were all so unprepared.

The attack on Pearl Harbor hit us like a bullet through the heart. So many died that beautiful December day, many of them in my arms or before my eyes. If I had had my way they all would have lived like I wanted but, as I said before, life never asked me what I wanted.

I was unprepared to meet Rafe McCawley and fall madly in love with him.

I was unprepared to learn that Rafe was going to England to fight.

I was unprepared when Danny stepped from the car with a look in his eyes so torn I could only know that Rafe was dead.

I was unprepared when I fell for Danny.

I was unprepared when Rafe turned up alive and I found that I was pregnant.

I was unprepared for the horror that I saw in the hospital and I couldn_t do anything. Sandra just didn_t know what to do and Betty...well, Betty was unprepared to die.

I was unprepared to find out that Danny and Rafe were leaving again.

I was unprepared for the pine casket Rafe brought home with Danny inside.

I_ve been unprepared for too many things and I_ll continue to be unprepared as time goes on.

Because it_s the only human thing to do and I_m only human. It_s the best I can do.

My son will never know his real father. I can_t begin to hope that he_ll never know heartache or war or danger or courage. I just can_t-to hope that he would never know the difference between good and evil, courage and fear, hatred and love, honor and defeat, brotherhood and friendship- that would be a fate worse than I could ever wish for him.

Rafe was unprepared to lose his brother and find him again in our child.

Danny-my sweet, sweet Danny-was prepared to die. Not as a hero or a man of great importance to the world but just to die. It_s funny....

He was the only one prepared to do anything at all.

I said it once and I_ll say it again.

Looking back we understand both more and less. This much is certain-before the Doolittle Raid, America knew nothing but defeat. After it, nothing but victory.

World War Two, for us, began at Pearl Harbor, and 1,177 men still lie entombed in the battleship Arizona.

America suffered. But America grew stronger. It was not inevitable.

The times tried our souls and through the trial...

We overcame...

This piece is dedicated to all the courageous Americans who either lost their lives in the Pearl Harbor attack, Doolittle Raid and World War Two, continued on in spite of it and have passed, or are still living to tell their stories and prepare the younger nation.

We will never more be unprepared to face evil.