Danny couldn't tell who was more surprised, his father or his mother.
He waited until Sarah and Joe left the house after Sunday breakfast to tell his parents about the situation with Ann. He knew Mama was aware that he was keeping something from them because she kept looking at him all through the meal. That got Dad to look at her with a look on his face that seemed to be curious about her attentiveness to their oldest child.
He helped them clean up the dishes and that drew an amused comment from his father. "Evelyn I think the boy has a fever; he's helpin' with the dishes."
She smiled at her husband. "You know better than that Rafe. Danny has never hesitated to help when I've asked."
"That's just it honey, you didn't ask." He grinned and Danny wondered how much he would be smiling when he gave Dad the news. "He volunteered."
She looked a little surprised and smiled back at him. "Yes, I suppose he did."
Danny smiled at the playfulness of his parent's conversation and couldn't remember a time when they couldn't find the humor in a situation. Mama told him once that if it weren't for his father she would be much too serious. He understood what she meant because he was finding out that if it weren't for Ann, he would be much too serious.
"So why have you volunteered to help us with the dishes when it should have been Sarah and Joe?" His mother asked him.
He dried the last dish, put it away in the cupboard and hung the dishtowel up to dry before he faced his parents. "I wanted to talk to you about something without a crowd around."
"Did you get your orders?" Dad asked and the grin he sported only moments before was gone.
"No it's not that. We have those two training missions that we're being sent on and I suspect that after we get through those then we'll probably be activated." He shook his head and reassured his worried father. "This actually doesn't have anything to do with flying or the Air Force, it's personal."
"Well don't keep us in suspense then, what is it?" Mama asked as she sat down at the kitchen table.
He leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest and sighed. "I don't know if you're going to like what I have to tell you."
"Well, we'll never know if you don't tell us so just spit it out." Dad let out an exasperated sigh of his own.
How did he begin? "After I broke up with Caroline it wasn't my intention to get involved with anyone. I'm going to be put into the combat rotation soon and it didn't seem fair to start a new relationship."
"But obviously someone's changed that." His mother guessed. "Is it Evelyn?"
He should have seen that coming, but didn't. He did take her to the Christmas Eve gathering at the Walker's after all and at Ann's request, spent time with her. "I know it probably seemed that way but no, it isn't Evelyn. It's Ann."
They didn't see that coming either.
His parent's looked at each other for a moment and then his father looked at him. "Ann Walker?"
"Yes Sir."
"We had no idea." Mama said quietly and he could see that she was trying to understand. "The only time we ever saw you two together were at the Sunday picnics but she always sat with Sarah, and Hank if he was there."
"When did all of this start?" Dad asked with a frown and he too was having a hard time grasping what Danny was trying to explain.
"I'm not really sure Dad; it just seemed to sneak up on me. She changed so much from the kid I remember when I left to go to the Academy and when I got home there was this girl that I didn't recognize. She's so easy to talk to and we started talking about the situation with Caroline and she didn't hesitate to give me her opinion on the matter. And it seemed the more we talked the more I began to really notice how much she had grown up."
"Do I need to ask you if anythin' has happened that shouldn't have?" His look was deadly serious.
Ann was right; they should have talked to their parents together. His father was asking the same questions her father asked and it made him even more uncomfortable to have to answer his own parents.
"No Sir."
"Have you kissed her?" He continued.
"Yes Sir."
"Does Danny know about any of this?"
Danny nodded. "I've already talked to him. He wanted the chance to talk to Mrs. Walker and to Ann before I talked to you to get her side of things."
"How do you feel about her?" Mama asked and she began to smile.
He smiled back. "I care for her a lot."
"And there ain't anythin' more to it than that?" Dad asked.
"There is more to it but I don't know exactly how to explain it." Danny admitted. "Maybe it's because we've known each other for most of our lives, but everything just seems to fit. She already knows me and it's made it a lot easier to talk and give me the chance to get to know her."
"I think the same could be said for her as well." His mother added. "You were always the one who could draw her out of her shell when she was a little girl. Sandra worried for the longest time that Ann would be as shy as she was. But she and Danny wouldn't let her and you certainly wouldn't either."
He was puzzled at his mother's remark. "I always thought that Sarah was better at that than I was."
"She had her own way, but Ann seemed to trust you in a way that she didn't with other children."
Danny grinned. "I don't know that it was trust Mama, I think it irritation."
His mother was serious. "Don't be smart about this Danny, you know darn well what I meant."
"I think the trust she's always had in you comes from the fact that you fished her out of the Pacific." Dad reminded him. "She wasn't even five years old yet and you and your sister were back from Tennessee."
He'd forgotten about that and nodded at the sudden memory. "We were at the beach the last Sunday before school started. Mama and Mrs. Walker made a picnic lunch and we went down by the water. She and Mrs. Walker were looking after Ann, Shelby and Tom and you and Major Walker were looking after Sarah and Joe."
"When I look back now, no one was keeping much of an eye on you." She remembered. "You always seemed older than your years and we didn't worry much about you. But to this day I still don't understand how she got away from us."
"With all the kids gettin' up and runnin' around while we were still tryin' to eat, it's easy to see how it happened." Dad recalled. "Four adults ain't no match for six kids and we sure found that out in a hurry."
"I'd never seen Danny in such a panic." She sighed. "We had no idea where she'd gotten off to and didn't even begin to know where to look."
"But thanks to our eagle eyed son he spotted her real quick, swimmin' like a seal out in the ocean." He remarked.
"I didn't have to look very far to see that she had floated farther out than she should have but she never panicked. As I remember she was more upset that I brought her in than her being almost a half-mile out." Danny said to them. "One of the first letters I got from Sarah after I started my first year at the Academy was that Ann was the only freshman swimmer on the varsity team. And she's never placed less than third for the last four years."
Dad grinned. "I believe I hear a note of pride in your voice son."
He grinned back self-consciously. "I'm waiting for swimming season to start because I haven't had the chance to see her race yet."
"Nice and evasive Danny." He laughed.
"Leave him be Rafe, you're embarrassing him." Mama admonished him. "Sandra had her suspicions when she saw you walk Ann home from the beach more than once but said she denied that anything was going on."
"That's because nothing was going on when she saw us, all I was doing was walking her home."
"So what happens now?" Dad asked him.
"I want to take her out." He answered simply.
"Did you have something in mind?" His mother asked.
He nodded and then he sighed. "I told her I wanted to take her to the Royal Hawaiian but then I got to thinking that a place like that is something you work up to. It might be too much for a first date." He didn't bother to tell them that Hank mentioned it first because it would mean that he would have to explain that his old roommate knew what was going on before his own parents. It was awkward enough that Sarah already knew.
"You make a good point." His father agreed. "If you're havin' second thoughts about takin' her there, take her to dinner somewhere else and then go to a movie. I know it don't sound like much, but sometimes it's the small things that are the most memorable."
"Like a bottle of champagne in front of a certain hospital." Mama smiled. "That's something I'll never forget."
"I won't either honey." He smiled back before he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Made that broken nose worth it."
She laughed. "Don't forget how that happened Rafe McCawley, you were trying to impress me."
"It worked though, didn't it?" His smile turned into a grin and his mother's face flushed.
"That it did."
Danny always loved these moments between his parents because he got to really see how much they still loved each other and how much their shared past mattered to them. It gave him the chance to see them not as his parents but as the married couple that they were. It used to make him somewhat envious when he was still with Caroline, but now that he and Ann were going to get their chance he was going to have the opportunity to see if they might have that same kind of magic his parents did.
"So do either of you have any suggestions? A movie we can figure out, but I didn't really want to take her to someplace where there are a lot of tourists."
"Honey, I don't know that you're going to be able to avoid that." She told him. "Oahu is one of the most popular islands in Hawaii and with the Arizona Memorial here, it makes it even more so."
"You could always take her to the Black Cat Café." His father suggested. "It's always been a place that's been more for the folks who live here. It's out of the way and it ain't ever really crowded. You could have a nice dinner and you're right across from the movie house."
The Black Cat was something else Hank suggested and with his own father backing up the idea without realizing it, Danny began to think that it might be a better way to start things off. It was important to him that he do things right with Ann because he would only get one chance. He grinned at his parents, "If I do that, I won't have to wear my dress uniform."
"You were goin' to pull out all the stops, weren't you?" Dad seemed surprised.
"That was my plan, but I'm beginning to realize that it might not be so overwhelming for either of us if I do keep it casual."
"Well even if you don't wear your dress uniform, I would hope that you would dress appropriately just the same." Mama added. "You may have decided to keep this casual, but it doesn't mean that you have to dress like it."
"Yes Ma'am." Danny understood that while his mother wasn't trying to tell him what to do, she was telling him what she would prefer.
"Just take your time with her son because she's young yet. She ain't ever really been away from home except to her grandparents and yours and you've seen a bit more of the world than she has."
"Dad, I promise you and Mama that nothing will happen that shouldn't. Ann means a lot to me and I don't want to ruin that." He pledged to them.
"Then we won't say anythin' else about it."
"Thank you." And he boosted himself of the edge of the counter and unfolded his arms. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to shove off now."
"What are your plans today Danny?" Mama asked him as she and his father followed him to the front door.
"I was thinking about going up later but I hadn't decided if I really wanted to."
Dad frowned. "Be careful not to burn yourself out Danny. I know you want to keep your flyin' skills sharp, but there is a reason your instructors want you to take your days off and not fly. If you get too tired, it has just the opposite effect."
"Yes Sir." His father was right and Danny knew it.
"It's a beautiful day and it seems a shame to waste it, why don't you head on down to the beach for a little while? You've always said that the ocean air clears your head."
"That it does Mama. So I think I will go down there for a while before I head home." He smiled at her and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Thanks for breakfast, it was great as usual."
"You're welcome Danny. But maybe one of these Sunday's you could have us over." She smiled. "You have to learn to cook and what easier way to start than breakfast?"
"One of these Sunday's soon." He smiled back as he pushed open the screen door and stepped out on to the porch.
He raised a hand in farewell before he headed down the walk and strolled toward the beach.
A/N: Sorry kids, but this is it for awhile. I've come down with a bad case of writer's block and do not know how I'm going to proceed with Danny and Ann. I've got some ideas, but nothing has panned out that will move the story forward. I will accept any and all ideas you have to try and help get this story moving again so please feel free to email me.
BTW: What would you think about pairing Hank with Evelyn instead of Sarah?