Lieutenant Daniel Rafe McCawley.

It was something that he was still getting used to even though he could look at the hard earned pilots wings on his new Air Force uniform and see the realization of a life long dream. The uniform he wore was one of many that were issued to the freshly minted Lieutenants, as they prepared for their first assignments out of the Academy.

He graduated on a warm June day in 1964 and it made his day that much more special that his family was there to see him receive his commission and his wings. They were there every step of the way for him and never once did his parents ever tell him that what he wanted wasn't possible. They always encouraged him to keep studying, even when it was difficult to do so sometimes and he didn't know how many Sunday picnics he turned down so that he could get some extra study time in.

His most challenging subjects at Pearl High were his advanced math classes and it took all of his concentration to understand the concepts. It helped when he and his father would go up in a decommissioned P-40 that the base kept for training purposes. He was seventeen before his father allowed him to go up by himself and solo in the old war bird and it was then that physics and calculus made sense to him.

As he stood with his roommate and fellow pilot in their room on graduation day with their base assignment letters in their hands, he wasn't sure if it was disappointment or relief he felt that Caroline wasn't there. He'd sent her an announcement a month earlier and as he should have expected, she couldn't find the time to come out. She explained in a short letter that there was some big social occasion that she couldn't miss and wouldn't be able to make it to his graduation.

Newly commissioned Lieutenant Henry Metcalf put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I don't know why you're letting it bother you so much Dan, it's no different than the last four years. She never did find the time to come back here and see where it was you went to school. Your parents always came back to see you at least once a year and even that pretty sister of yours managed to make it a couple of times."

Danny smiled. "She really made an impression on you today, didn't she?"

He saw his friend's face flush and wondered what Hank wasn't telling him. "She sure grew up in the last four years."

"She seemed to think the same about you too."

He looked startled. "What did she say?"

Danny grinned. "It wasn't what she said, it was what she didn't say."

"What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Sarah is blunt and Mama says she gets that from our Grandpa McCawley. She doesn't worry about what people think except when someone has gotten her attention. I saw it happen when we were at Pearl High and whenever there was a certain guy that she was interested in she would tend to clam up."

"Do you think she's interested in me?" He seemed surprised by that.

"There's only one way to find out you know. My family isn't going to leave until the day after tomorrow, so why don't you use some of that nerve that gave our instructors' more gray hairs than they wanted and ask her out for coffee."

"Coffee."

"Why not? Asking her out on a date seems to have you rattled. So if you go for coffee it's not really a date and then you have a chance to talk to her and see if you want to get to know her better."

"This is coming from a guy who saw more of his family than his girlfriend in the last four years." Hank shook his head.

"Well long distance or not, at least I had a girlfriend." Danny shot back. "You didn't strike me as the type of guy who would be shy around girls when I met you four years ago, but you proved me wrong."

"You have a short memory McCawley. I did have a girlfriend when I first got here."

He smiled. "And then you got a 'Dear Hank' letter a week before sophomore year."

"That I did, but I understood why. Unlike Caroline, Melissa wasn't happy with a long distance boyfriend or a long distance relationship and I knew we were headed for a breakup before I came back from summer leave. She was the brave one because she had the nerve to actually do it."

"I don't know what in the hell to do about Caroline." Danny sighed.

"Yes you do, you just don't have the nerve to do it. Even Evelyn wasn't enough for you to call things off." Hank observed.

"She wanted me to stay here even though I told her that I didn't have any control over where the Air Force sent me and it didn't help that she had the same name as my mother."

"I know that made things awkward for you, but she seemed to really go for you."

"I liked her too, but the fact was that I had a girlfriend."

Hank sighed. "I never thought being honorable would be such a terrible thing. But you used it to get out of breaking up with a girl who was never much of a girlfriend and give another girl a chance that could've made you happy."

Danny sat down at his desk. "The truth is Hank, as much as I did like her she was a distraction. I worked a long time to get here and the last thing I wanted was to get involved with someone because I needed all my concentration for my studies and my flying. It's true that Caroline never came back when I kept inviting her, but if she had come she wouldn't have been very happy or too impressed for that matter."

"So are you going to call it quits once we get posted?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I want to get settled in before I can think about that."

"You didn't answer my question." Hank persisted.

"It would be the logical thing to do."

"Dan, why are you so lukewarm to the idea of breaking up with her?" He seemed puzzled for a moment and then looked horrified. "Don't tell me that you're actually in love with her?"

"You know I'm not and I don't think she loves me either." Danny admitted.

"Then why the pretense?"

"It just hasn't been important enough to deal with, that's all. And it seems that she's felt the same way because she's never told me she wants to break up."

Hank sat down next to him at his own desk. "We're not kids any more. We worked damn hard to earn our commission and our wings and we have to be adults now. You're going to be twenty-two in September and you decided to make the Air Force your career when you accepted your appointment to the Academy. You know as well as I do that you'll have to make split second decisions when you're in the cockpit and it puzzles me why you can't do it on the ground."

He tried to lighten his friend's serious mood. "I don't have my life in my hands on the ground."

"Maybe not your life, but you do have your future in your hands. And it seems to me that it's going to go one of two ways. You're going to end up marrying someone you don't love because you can't tell her how you feel. Or, you're to break things off with her and give some other girl a chance. Who knows, she might be right under your nose."

"In case you haven't noticed, this campus isn't exactly teeming with females."

"I don't mean here, smart-ass. I mean when you get to your new post." Hank looked at him with feigned disgust. "There will most certainly be females there and you need to take advantage of your newly earned status as an Air Force pilot."

"Says the guy who won't ask my sister out."

Hank sighed dramatically. "All right, I'll ask her to have coffee with me."

Danny nodded. "And I'll do something about Caroline."

"Preferably before you marry her McCawley." He grinned.

Danny shook his head and smiled back. "Let's go Lieutenant. We've got family waiting for us downstairs." And he got up from his chair and headed to the door before he stopped and looked around the room. "It's hard to believe that we won't be coming back to this room next year."

Hank got up from his own chair and walked over to Danny. "If it hadn't been for you, I probably wouldn't have gotten through freshman year."

"If it hadn't been for you I probably wouldn't have gotten through sophomore year, so I'd say we're even."

"Hey, McCawley! Your family is downstairs waiting with Metcalf's family so get your asses down there!" The voice of their cadet squadron leader carried down the hall.

The two friends grinned at each other. "That I won't miss." Hank grinned as he threw an arm around Danny's shoulders for a moment. "Let's go Lieutenant."

And they left the room to go meet their families.