It had been a long day and Sandra was ready for bed.

She and Danny had made the trip back to Ohio for Christmas and her father had finally been able to see his new granddaughter. He was as captivated by the baby as Tom McCawley had been and spoiled her just as much, or at least he tried to.

It seemed to Sandra that every relative within twenty miles of her parent's house had come to see the baby that Christmas Eve and of course everyone wanted to hold her. Ann had seemed to take exception to it after a short while because she had started to cry. That was all it took for Danny to politely take his daughter out of someone's arms and ask James where their room was so he could put the baby down.

He seemed to understand and suggested to his son in law to take the baby upstairs and if he and Sandra were ready to go to bed, to hit the sack. Sandra was grateful for his concern and kissed his cheek as they said goodnight.

Margaret walked upstairs with them. "I know you don't need me to show you the way, but Dad has a surprise for you." She explained as she opened Sandra's bedroom door.

It was still hers, but it was different.

"Dad and I didn't have the heart to turn this into a guestroom because it was always yours. And then after you got married, we wanted this to be yours and Danny's room when you came to stay."

Sandra walked into the room that she had lived in until she had graduated from high school and then left to join the Navy so she could go to nursing school. It was still the same in many ways, but most of her girlhood treasures had been packed away. Her vanity was still there by the door and had pictures of childhood friends still stuck in the mirrors frame. The iron bedstead had been spruced up with a fresh coat of white paint and her great-grandmothers hand patched quilt lay across the double mattress. "I always promised that you could have Gram's quilt, but I thought it would serve you better here than in Hawaii."

Sandra hugged her mother. "Thank you. It's perfect where it is."

In addition to the quilt, Sandra's old dresser had on it a framed picture of Danny and herself on their wedding day, a picture of Ann that her mother had taken was stuck in the frame as well as another framed picture of Danny in his dress uniform. He was standing behind Sandra who was wearing the garnet colored dress that she'd worn to the nightclub the night she'd met Danny. And in her lap sat Ann. It was a picture of a happy family and it made Sandra smile.

"You've done a wonderful job with the room Mom."

"That's not quite it honey. Dad brought down your cradle from the attic and cleaned it up and painted it for Ann." She pointed to the cradle at the foot of the bed. "He also rigged up a bath and changing table for you." Margaret added as she lifted the top of the changing table to reveal a makeshift bathtub. "The idea is that you could bathe her in here and when you're done, put the lid down and you have a place to dress her."

"That was real nice of him to do this." Danny commented as he put Ann down in the cradle and moved it to his side of the bed. He sat down on the side and started to rock.

"We'll have to thank him in the morning." Sandra agreed.

"Please don't." Margaret requested. "He didn't want me to tell you what he'd done, but I thought you should know. It was hard on him not being able to see Ann until now and he wanted everything to be as perfect and easy for you as possible when you got here."

"We really should do somethin'." Danny said as he came to stand behind Sandra.

"Just let him spend as much time with her as possible. We know that we won't have the chance to see Ann as much as we'd like so this is something that you can do."

"Done." Was all he said.

"Thank you son. Well, I know it's been a long day for you and my granddaughter is already sound asleep. There are clean towels in your bathroom and if you want to finish unpacking and get ready for bed, then I'll say goodnight."

"Thank you for everything Mom. We couldn't have asked for anything nicer." Sandra hugged her mother again.

"That's what mother's are for Sandra. Someday you'll do something like this for your daughter. Sleep well you two." And she closed the door as she left the room.

"You're Mama's really somethin'." Danny smiled. "You're just like her." He added as he put his arms around her and kissed her.

Sandra put her arms around his neck and held him. "This is the nicest Christmas I can remember in a long time, but I' m really tired."

"Me too. All this travelin' around the country durin' the holidays wears me out."

"I'm just thankful that we can. If you didn't have the seniority that you do, we wouldn't be able to see our families."

"That ain't necessarily true honey. It would just mean that they would have to come to Hawaii."

She nodded. "At least they would be able to now. With all the restrictions on traveling during the war, I don't think anybody got home or got to Hawaii."

"But at least we had each other and our friends to spend the holidays with."

"When you were home." Sandra smiled at him.

"We missed a Christmas or two didn't we?" He grinned at her.

"And a Thanksgiving or two." She added with a wider smile.

"In spite of it all those were good days, weren't they?"

Sandra nodded again. "It was hard on all of us being away from our families, but being together with all of them made it a little less difficult."

"Maybe next year, we'll try havin' them back to Hawaii for Thanksgivin' or Christmas. Would you like that?"

"Could we really? I would like that."

His own grin got wider. "I knew you would. Besides, I don't like the idea of leavin' Red alone for another holiday."

"He's got his parents doesn't he?"

He let her go and picked up his suitcase. He put it on the foot of the bed and opened it. "He does but he's never really talked about them. Rafe, Gooz, Anthony and Billy talked about their families all the time and I talked about the McCawley's, but his family was always somethin' of a mystery."

Sandra followed his lead and put her own suitcase on the other side of the bed and opened it. "Danny, he's not by himself in Hawaii is he?"

He glanced at her before he nodded. "I tried to talk him into comin' with us, but he said he'd feel like he was intrudin'."

"That's not true! Mom and Dad would have loved to have him here." She was hurt.

"You and I both know that honey, but there was no talkin' to him. My feelin' about this was that Betty became his family after they got engaged and she was all he needed."

"But Betty's been gone for such a long time and he needs someone." She sighed as she finished unpacking and put her suitcase under the bed.

"He don't see it that way Sandra and there ain't anythin' we can do. We just have to face facts that he might never get married."

"That's absurd. He's a wonderful man and he deserves someone in his life to make him happy."

"You don't need to tell me that. But we can't make him do anythin' that he don't want to do." He reasoned as he finished unpacking his own suitcase and put it under the bed. He checked on his sleeping daughter and smiled. "That girl can sleep anywhere."

Sandra smiled at him as she picked up her nightgown and robe. "She's getting used to all the traveling I think. I'm going to take a bath before bed. Do you want to get in there before I do?"

He shook his head. "You go ahead honey. I'll keep an eye on Annie, so take your time."

"I won't be long." She answered before she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Danny smiled at his sleeping daughter and rubbed her back. "You're Mama's really somethin'."