Ann was sick with her first cold that Thanksgiving of 1948 and Sandra didn't want to subject her daughter to a long plane ride back to Ohio. So instead, they decided to stay home and Red joined them for a quiet celebration at their house. And as was their tradition, they remembered their friends that had been lost.

And not for the first time Sandra lamented Red being alone.

Christmas was spent in Hawaii that year as well. Though he had the seniority, Danny felt that it was time to give some of the other boys a chance to get home to see their families. Many of them hadn't been home since the end of the war and some, longer than that. Sandra was in full agreement when he'd asked her if it would be all right and she told him how proud of him she was because of his thoughtfulness.

Their reward for his sacrifice was an unexpected visit from Rafe and Evelyn McCawley.

As Rafe told his best friend, his parents were heartbroken at the idea of the Walker's not being able to come back for Christmas. So Tom and Sarah insisted that he and Evelyn go back to Hawaii to spend the week with them. There had been much discussion about the kids coming, but Evelyn didn't want to overwhelm Sandra with so many guests so they stayed home.

It wasn't something that Danny gave much thought to when Rafe asked him to meet the incoming transport at Hickam on Christmas Eve. He'd never really thought of Rafe as anything other than an Air Corps pilot, though if he'd still been in the military he would have been re-designated as an Air Force pilot as Danny had the previous September. The Army Air Corps had been reclassified as the United States Air Force on September 18, 1947 and was no longer attached to the Army.

So on the early afternoon of Christmas Eve 1948, Danny met the transport at Hickam Air Force Base. He wanted to bring Sandra and Ann with him, but his baby girl had been fussy all day and he hoped that she wasn't getting sick again.

While he waited for his best friend and his wife, Danny thought about how his life was with his own wife and daughter. Sometimes he felt that his life was blessed in ways that he didn't have a right to expect. And it was always Tom McCawley who told him that no one more than he deserved that life. It was his opinion that God was making it up to him for what had happened in his young life. When Danny would remind him of what he and Sarah had done for him, Tom would always reply that as much as he and Sarah loved him and thought of him as a son, he had been cheated out of having the love of his own parents.

It was the sound of the props of the C-47 coming in that pulled Danny out of his reverie and he watched as the transport lined up for a landing and heard the wheels screech as they made contact with the tarmac.

After the engines were shut down, the door was opened and steps were pulled up so that passengers could begin to get off.

He didn't realize that he'd been shifting his weight from one foot to the other until he saw Evelyn step off and pause for a moment and turn. It looked as though she was saying something, but Danny couldn't tell. It was then he saw Rafe in the doorway and he was wearing his flight jacket from those long ago days of being P-40 pilots. It was odd to see him wear it, because in the previous visits back to Tennessee and their visits to Hawaii, Rafe had never worn it.

He jogged out to the plane to meet them and gave Evelyn a brief hug before he turned and shook his best friend's hand. "Sandra was happy as hell when I told her you two were comin'." He grinned.

Rafe grinned back at him. "Well, Evelyn here was happy as hell when I told her we were comin'."

"How is Sandra?" Evelyn asked him. "Has she been having problems?"

Danny shook his head. "She had a little mornin' sickness at the beginnin', but other than that she'd been doin' real well."

"No stitches?" She pressed as Rafe picked up their suitcases.

"Not a one." He replied and began to walk toward the gate and to his car. "Sandra can tell you more about that then I can, so you can ask her more questions when we get to the house. We told Red you were comin' so he might be there when we get back."

"How is he?" Rafe asked. "We got a Christmas card from him but he didn't say much."

"That's Red. Other than havin' dinner on Wednesday and breakfast on Sunday with us, he don't seem to socialize that much."

Rafe frowned as they reached the car and he helped Evelyn into the back seat. "He ain't datin'?"

"He dates, but Sandra worries that he's doin' it just to make us happy." Danny told him as he stowed the suitcases in the trunk. "His heart just don't seem to be in it." And he walked around to the drivers side.

Rafe had folded his forearms on the roof of the car and looked across at Danny. "It ain't good Danny. Betty's been gone for a long time and it's time he finds someone else."

That got him to laugh. "You sound just like my wife. She worries all the time about that." And he opened the door and got in. He turned around and grinned at Evelyn. "Your husband ain't much of a gentleman if he put you in the backseat."

Evelyn smiled at him in return as Rafe sat down in the passenger seat and closed the door. "It was my idea. I thought it would be easier for the two of you to talk if Rafe were sitting up front."

He grinned as he started up the engine and pulled the car out of the lot. He drove back to Wheeler Air Force Base and stopped to show his identification to the MP at the gate before he was waved through. He headed toward base housing and the cottage that had once belonged to Rafe and Evelyn. As he thought they might be, Sandra had Ann in her lap as she and Red sat on the front porch when Danny pulled the car into the drive and turned off the engine.

He got out of the car and walked back to the trunk to collect the suitcases while Rafe helped Evelyn out of the backseat and walked with her up to the porch.

Danny followed behind with a suitcase in each hand and put them down.

"Did you tell them that they'll be staying in our room while they're here?" Sandra asked him as Ann squealed at the sight of her father. He reached over to take her off of Sandra's lap and hug her.

"Sorry honey, I didn't have the chance to tell them." He answered as he smiled at his daughter and she grabbed his nose.

"She's gettin' to that age ain't she?" Rafe grinned at Danny. "She's startin' to grab whatever she can get her hands on."

Sandra laughed. "She's toddling too so that makes it much easier for her to grab anything within reach. It seems every time I turn around, she's got her hands on something."

Evelyn smiled at Sandra. "We can't take your room from you Sandra. Rafe and I will be perfectly comfortable in the other room."

"Nonsense. It was your room before it was ours and we would really like it if you would take it."

"Besides, we've already moved our things into Annie's room." Danny backed up his wife. "We put a bed in there when she started sleepin' by herself so that if she got scared we could stay with her."

"You can't say no." Sandra added. "Everything's been arranged and that's that."

Danny smiled as his daughter grabbed his nose again. Sandra could be stubborn when she wanted to be and it was obvious to him that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Rafe looked at him. "Don't look at me Rafe, I happen to agree with her."

He watched as Rafe smiled at Evelyn. "Well honey, it looks like we're stayin' in our old room." He told his wife as he picked up the suitcases and headed inside.

"Welcome home Ev." Sandra smiled at her as she stood up and ushered her into the house with Danny, Ann and Red bringing up the rear.